SOFIA: A Bulgarian group of dozens of cyber activists at first clubbed together to battle Russian disinformation, but they have since found other foes - like animal abusers. They call themselves the BG Elves, which both refers to the kind-hearted characters of Scandinavian mythology and hints at a rivalry with the internet’s malicious trolls. The collective of about 70 anonymous cyber security experts have made a name for themselves by creating problems for their adversaries.

One of their latest efforts was helping an animal rights NGO uncover evidence that led to the March arrest of a woman and a man accused of selling videos online of hundreds of animals being tortured to death. “Our work was crucial, because for the first time a crime was solved in Bulgaria based on OSINT data, proving that our efforts can produce concrete results,” software developer Petko Petkov, the Elves’ only public face, told AFP.

OSINT refers to open-source intelligence, which is information gathered with digital investigation techniques like reverse image search and geolocation. In the summer of 2024, the NGO alerted the cyber sleuths to videos posted on Telegram of a masked woman torturing animals. The Elves tracked her down within hours. Using OSINT, they were also able to trace the locations where the videos of cats, rabbits and guinea pigs being tortured on camera were filmed by her accomplice. The videos sparked widespread protests in Bulgaria, and prompted the government to propose emergency legislation.

‘Counter-propaganda’

Set up in 2023 in response to pro-Kremlin disinformation flooding Bulgaria, the group first zeroed in on the key players involved in the campaigns. “There were about 10 of us in a chat group, we refined the concept, then put out a call for volunteers,” Petkov told AFP about the group’s founding. They have grown significantly since and include experts in cyber security, social engineering and databases. “We are not hackers, we are researchers,” said Petkov, 37, who moved from central Bulgaria to Kyiv shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Dedicated to activism, the Elves try to fight the deluge of disinformation by disseminating “counter-propaganda that makes people think”, he said. “We noticed that a (disinfo) narrative... takes some time to reach people. Our idea was to flood the space with humor and irony before the propaganda takes hold,” said Petkov. Recently, they launched a viral meme campaign targeting the main false claims about Bulgaria’s accession to the euro-zone, distributing the content through profiles embedded within major disinformation networks. In March, BG Elves supported a Romanian journalist in an investigation that exposed a Russia-linked disinformation and propaganda network funded through online advertising.

‘More serious’ cases

In the wake of the recent arrests, Bulgaria proposed a bill in parliament, which allows for higher prison terms of up to 10 years for torturing animals. Nearly 300 people have been convicted of such offences in the last five years, but few end up in prison. Petya Altimirska, president of the animal welfare association CAAI, who had reached out to the Elves for help in the abuse case, has since received numerous reports of “even more serious” cases, adding that the cyber sleuths are already “on it”. While the group was praised for exposing the animal abuse, it has also faced criticism and numerous threats for its provocative approach and alleged political bias. — AFP