Offering a service to politicians and prominent figures who want to manipulate public opinion, paid-for “troll factories” have become increasingly common on Kyrgyzstani social media. These troll factories run networks of fake accounts, using them to burnish their clients’ images and to denigrate opponents by flooding pages and websites with “likes” and comments.
Once easy to spot, these fake profiles have become more sophisticated over time, as troll factories have learned how to make them look authentic by filling them with content, and interacting with other users. It’s hard to find out who exactly the clients are, but Kyrgyzstani journalists have managed to identify fake accounts used to express support for the powerful Matraimov family, as well as ex-presidents Sooronbai Jeenbekov and Almazbek Atambayev.
A sign of the role these troll factories play in politics came this autumn. According to the news outlet Kaktus.media, a group of fake accounts that had previously acted in support of the Mekenim Kyrgyzstan party, widely linked to the Matraimovs, had suddenly switched their allegiance to Sadyr Japarov, the nationalist politician who took over as interim leader in October, after post-election protests.
