Pro-Kremlin trolls have been systematically manipulating the comment sections of Western news websites to spread propaganda and disinformation, a group of UK researchers has found. Researchers from Cardiff University say they have found evidence that 32 prominent media outlets across 16 countries have been targeted, including the UK’s Daily Mail, Daily Express, and The Times of London, America’s Fox News and The Washington Post, French newspaper Le Figaro, Germany’s Der Spiegel and Die Welt, and Italy’s La Stampa. The study was carried out by the Open Source Communications Analytics Research (Oscar) programme at Cardiff University, which is partly funded by Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO). UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said: “This report highlights the threat to our democracy of Russian state-backed misinformation on the Internet. The UK is working closely with international allies to stand up to the Kremlin trolls peddling lies.” The researchers identified 242 news …