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May 13, 2020updated 30 Sep 2022 9:17am

‘Minions of fascism’: Russian internet trolls outraged by Press Gazette exposure of 5G conspiracy video

By William Turvill

Russian-speaking internet trolls have attacked Press Gazette after an investigation into Covid-19 conspiracy theories prompted the removal of a Youtube video claiming links between the disease and 5G.

The verbal attacks appear to have started after the video’s uploader, Vlad Freedom, linked through to the article and Press Gazette’s Youtube account on his channel, which has 217,000 subscribers.

According to a Google translation of his message, Freedom described our journalists as “cult ministers” and suggested that Press Gazette’s slogan – “fighting for journalism” – should be changed to “fighting for the satanists of psychopaths”.

The post appears to have led to dozens of Freedom’s followers attacking Press Gazette on Youtube and on our website’s comments section.

Comments on Youtube appear to describe PG journalists as “shit eaters”, “accomplices of the fascists”, “fucking satanists”, “fu*cking snitches”, “infantile incels”, “freaks”, “false, false, false, false, false, false, false”, “creatures serving the cult and satanist paedophiles”, “foul”, “wafer dips”, “minions of fascism”, “shameful creatures”, “pathetic”, “stupid idiots” and “disgusting to look at”.

Under last week’s story, a commenter identifying themselves as “Shame on you”, described Press Gazette as “the enemies of democracy and freedom of speech. You spread the phishing web news. You by their actions violate human rights and violate the freedom of choice of obtaining information from any available source. You act against the will of the people, and bear full responsibility for their actions. Shame on you.

“I believe that your organization must be closed, and you send in the dock, for what you are against freedom of speech and for the fact that you are contributing to their propaganda genocide of mankind. Crimes against humanity have no statute of limitations.”

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Another said: “Hands off Russian YouTube!”

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