More than 7,300 users, over 32,000 accounts on the social media platform X, and nearly 400,000 tasks involving liking, sharing and commenting on posts — these are the dimensions of an online coordination system that, according to an investigation by the weekly magazine Vreme, is linked to the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).
Particularly striking is the finding that more than 1,200 platform users logged in from the internet networks of state institutions and public enterprises, with as many as 94 percent of those logins recorded on weekdays between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m.
Vreme analyzed a database from the progress.rs platform that was leaked and published on the ocisti.net website. The data cover the period from February 2023 to December 2024 and reveal how, according to the weekly magazine, a system for assigning tasks, awarding points, organizing shifts and monitoring social media account activity operated. However, the mere recording of logins from public institutions’ networks does not prove that all users were employees of those institutions.
The figures in the database resemble a report from a medium-sized company. The platform has more than 7,300 registered users and over 32,000 registered accounts on X.
Between February 2023 and December 2024, as many as 394,763 tasks were issued, averaging 564 per day. Each task contained a link to a post, the type of action required — a like, repost, reply or quote — as well as instructions on what to write and how to phrase it.
Points were awarded for these activities. Rankings were maintained by municipalities, districts and regions, while those on duty submitted reports at the end of their shifts.
There are more than a thousand such reports in the database, and almost all begin with the same sentence: “The shift passed peacefully.”
Bot activity from state institutions during working hours
The locations from which users accessed the platform are particularly noteworthy. According to Vreme’s analysis, as many as 1,241 users logged in from the internet networks of 231 public institutions, accounting for a total of 134,481 logins.
As many as 94 percent of these logins were recorded on weekdays between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m., during regular working hours.
The institutions whose networks appear in the database include the National Assembly of Serbia, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Labor, Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS), the Republic Pension and Disability Insurance Fund (PIO Fund), and the National Employment Service.
The National Assembly’s network recorded 14 users and 1,237 logins, while EPS’s network recorded 26 users and 1,040 logins.
The network of the state administration associated with the Office for Information Technologies and eGovernment recorded 27 users and 2,428 logins. The same number of users was recorded on the Ministry of Labor’s network.
The highest numbers of users logging in from public institutions’ networks were recorded in Belgrade (92), Vranje (61), Kikinda (56), Mali Zvornik (49) and Lučani (39).
According to the database, sessions linked to public institutions’ networks accounted for as many as 795,042 actions on the social media platform X, while a total of 11,075 domestic accounts were targeted by the platform’s activities.
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Source: Vreme Foto: Wikipedia
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