The Polish group created the website after obtaining some 20 million cell phone numbers and close to 140 million email addresses owned by Russian individuals and companies, the US Wall Street Journal newspaper reported on Saturday.
The site allows anyone from around the world to message numbers and addresses from these databases. Moreover, they can send a pre-drafted message in Russian that calls on Russians to sidestep President Vladimir Putin’s censorship of the media, according to the newspaper.
It comes after the Kremlin had imposed tight controls on news about its invasion of Ukraine, which Russian media aren’t allowed to refer to as a war.
“Our aim was to break through Putin’s digital wall of censorship and make sure that Russian people are not totally cut off from the world and the reality of what Russia is doing in Ukraine,” a spokesman for the Poland-based group, Squad303, told the WSJ.
The group takes it name from the famous No. 303 Squadron, a British air force unit made up of Polish pilots that distinguished itself in the battle against Nazi Germany during the Second World War.
The website Squad303 developed, 1920.in, derives its address from the Soviet-Polish War of 1920, in which Polish forces, despite being outnumbered, warded off a Soviet invasion.
Countering Russian propaganda
Since the tool was launched on March 6, thousands of people from across the globe have used it to send millions of Russian-language text messages and emails, footage from the war, or images of Western media coverage documenting Russia’s attacks on civilians, according to Squad 303.
38-year-old Titan Crawford from Portland, USA, told the WSJ he had messaged 2,000 mobile-phone numbers in Russia. Most recipients never responded, some reacted with expletives, but 15 people engaged in conversation, he said.
Meanwhile, Dey Correa from Panama, 33, said she had sent 100 emails to random Russians after seeing the bombing of a maternity hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, the WSJ reported.
Ms Correa said: “This situation is horrible, I feel so sad, and I wish to do something.…I have a seven-month-old baby, and I couldn’t stop crying when I saw so many babies having to flee bombs.”
She added she had received 20 replies, with one sender writing he would throw a nuclear bomb on America, but others “were more engaging.” An owner of a beauty salon answered that she was Russian, but not a supporter of Mr Putin, according to the WSJ.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, the Kremlin has cracked down on independent media, shutting them down or censoring their coverage.
It has also restricted access to Western social networks such as Twitter, as well as banning Facebook, and is also shutting down Instagram from midnight on Sunday.
Moreover, a new law makes dissemination of "false information" about Russia’s campaign in Ukraine punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
The United Nations’ human rights office on Friday announced it had confirmed the deaths of 564 civilians in Ukraine, including 41 children, since the Russian attack on the country began on February 24. It added that the real toll is believed to be considerably higher, according to the Reuters news agency.
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Source: wsj.com, PAP, onet.pl, Reuters, euronews.com