According to a statement from the investigative media outlet “Studio Monitori,” a bot attack took place on their Instagram page on the night of October 19.

“Over the past night, ‘Studio Monitori’ was attacked by more than 1,000 fake accounts. The fake followers left dozens of comments on Instagram posts. Such attacks aim to disrupt social platforms,” reads Studio Monitori’s statement.

Notably, the investigative media outlet has repeatedly fallen victim to digital attacks in recent months. In August, Studio Monitori’s Facebook page was blocked based on fake complaints. Prior to that, Monitori’s YouTube channel was targeted, resulting in the deletion of the “Studio Monitori” YouTube channel overnight due to fraudulent reports. Later, “Monitori” conducted its own investigation into the grounds for the channel’s removal and discovered that the YouTube account was terminated based on so-called copyright strikes. The media outlet found out that up to $5,000 had been paid for the complaints. Furthermore, the person directly involved in taking down the channel was an individual named Aditya Singh, who admitted himself that he received a substantial sum of money in exchange for filing the complaint, though he did not name the client who commissioned it.