Are photographs of posters in the Moscow metro warning about the dangers of VPN services true?

A photo of a public service announcement allegedly appearing in a Moscow metro car has circulated on the Internet. The poster warns passengers about the dangers of using VPN services. We checked whether these images are true.

A photo of the poster appeared in several Telegram channels (Sota, UNIAN, "Ax 18+»), as well as in Media, social networks and on forums. According to the caption to the photo, the poster was allegedly photographed in a carriage of the Zamoskvoretskaya metro line. The poster draws an analogy between VPN services and pickpockets who steal valuables from passengers. TJournal writes that “in addition to printed materials, passengers are informed through screens in train cars, as well as broadcast audio announcements in lobbies and on escalator slopes.”

According to some data, over several months of military operations in Ukraine, more than 138,000 websites were blocked for Russian users. Tightening Internet censorship has led to splash popularity of applications for bypassing Internet blocks - VPN services. In response to this popularity, Russian federal Media began to notify Russians about the dangers of using VPN applications. According to publications, these applications have the ability to “steal” users’ personal data and transfer it to third parties. Information portal of the government of St. Petersburg “Petersburg Diary” writes: “VPN services promise users anonymity, but in fact do not provide it, but only leak personal data to the Darknet.” A poster spotted in the Moscow metro also illustrates the danger of becoming a victim of identity theft.

A few days after the publications with posters appeared, the pro-government anonymous resource “War on Fake”, repeatedly caught us on misinformation, wrote refutation, calling the photos fake from Ukrainian Telegram channels. Another Russian pro-government information project "Noodles", referring to the analysis Lenta.ru, also called the photos false: “The news is fake. The photo was altered using an image editor. They took as a basis an old poster from the Internal Affairs Directorate in the Moscow Metro, which warned about cases of theft and also called on people to be vigilant.”

Indeed, in 2018, the press service of the Moscow Metro Internal Affairs Directorate told about the campaign to inform citizens about the criminal schemes of pickpockets and robbers in transport: “Stickers will be placed on all rolling stock, on platforms and in the future on escalator vaults that will warn passengers about the most common types of thefts and robberies.” Poster the one about pickpockets that the ATC was talking about is almost identical to the poster about VPN services. The graphic used for the ATC Information Poster and the VPN Services Poster can be found in online portfolio illustrator Boris Zabolotsky.

Nevertheless, the similarity of the two posters only demonstrates that both images were based on the same drawing by Boris Zabolotsky. This does not exclude the possibility that both versions - about pickpockets and VPN services - were at some point posted on subway cars.

In various Telegram channels and social network groups, we were able to find six different photographs of a poster about VPN services (“OPL Moscow", "Intelligent Lomonosovsky", Sota). Judging by the context and captions under the photographs, the photographs were taken in different cars and on different metro lines. Digital analysis six photographs showed no obvious signs of editing or photo collage.

So, we cannot say whether this was an official initiative of the metro administration or someone’s initiative. It was based on a drawing about pickpockets created for the Internal Affairs Directorate in 2018. At the same time, most likely, posters about the dangers of VPN services really existed and at some point were posted in the Moscow metro, as evidenced by real photographs from the cars.

Cover image: Telegram

Most likely true

What do our verdicts mean?

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