Infact, Publir isn’t just a direct seller: It’s vtforiegnpolicy(.)com’s only connection to the wider ad supply chain, acting as their advertiser-friendly face. This also means, outside of donations and other agreements, they control access to a huge chunk of the site's income. 5/

To test WellKnown out, I searched ‘vtforiegnpolicy(.)com’, a conspiracy theorist site affiliated with RU Intel backed disinformation. Picked largely out of convenience (I’ve had VT bookmarked for months), I found it surprising when I spotted Publir amongst its direct sellers. 4/

To do this, they used a site called Well-Known.dev, an ‘open index of well-known resources’, one of which is ‘ads.txt’. We can use this to track which ad systems supply sites of interest. This example shows that Twitter uses InMobi to run ads on behalf of X Corp. 3/
well-known.dev/resources/ad...

By investigating and analysing the accounts background, we can disprove key elements of it's supposed origin including where it's based. Consistencies with more well known disinformation actors mean we can use SICS to gain insights into ongoing campaigns... 2/4