Human rights defenders from Homiel Spring have warned about fake chatbots on Telegram that could be used to target people seeking assistance.
According to the group, two fake chatbots named “Homiel Spring” have been found on the messaging platform. They use the same avatar as the organisation’s genuine Telegram channel.
Homiel Spring suspects that the bots may have been created by security officials to identify people who contact human rights defenders for help and subsequently target them. The group stressed that it has only two official contact channels: the Homiel_Bot chatbot and the Telegram account of Viasna’s Homiel branch.
The group also recalled that the Belarusian authorities have designated human rights organisations as “extremist formations”, and that security agencies may interpret contacting them as “facilitating extremist activities”.