A Russian IT company denied on Monday any involvement in a project to develop software to monitor social networks and influence public opinion for the country’s intelligence services.
Kommersant daily reported earlier in the day that the Iteranet company had a contract with the Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces.
“We are not in the business of developing systems to monitor blogs and plant information in the blogosphere,” Iteranet CEO Igor Matskevich told RIA Novosti.
“There have been no contracts of the type Kommersant claims. We do not engage in such activity.”
He declined to elaborate.
Kommersant said Iteranet’s SVR contract included systems to monitor and control the blogosphere and shape public opinion by spreading “special information” in social networks.