MISTAKEN IDENTITY
I’m being bullied because trolls think I’m a Russian politician’s daughter – and the attacks are only getting worse
ONLINE trolls have mistaken a Florida woman for a Russian politician's daughter, subjecting her to attacks on social media.
“It’s not nice to have your picture posted in a wrongful content,” said Ekaterina Lavrova, a realtor originally from Russia.
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Lavrova says that for weeks she’s received threats from social media users who’ve mistaken her for the daughter of Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov as the two share the same name.
“It sounds silly, but like I would never imagine that I would be in a situation like that,” said Lavrova.
Ever since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Lavrova said that people have targeted her on multiple platforms. She’s received hateful messages and phone calls, even targeting the real estate office where she works.
“People wish you to burn in hell, you know ‘you should be deported’, ‘let’s take over her apartment and host somebody from Ukraine,’” she said.
“Every day you think it’s going to get better, it doesn’t stop.”
Lavrova said that people made posts on Twitter with her account information, then messages into her social media followed.
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“They say, ‘This is his daughter. Let’s go attack her,’” she said.
The real Sergey Lavrov is under personal sanctions due to his role in the war on Ukraine.
Lavrova believes that due to the similarity in names, people have been quick to target her without checking if their information is accurate. Now, she’s worried for her family’s safety.
“All it takes is one crazy person to come and do something, and God knows what they can do,” she said.
Lavrova has tried reporting the harassment on Twitter but said they haven’t removed the posts or comments because they “didn’t find a violation of our rules.”
"It would be helpful if Twitter, Google and Facebook help to take the false information down," Lavrova said to The Sun.
"Unfortunately, most of the tweets are not being deleted even if they contain false information."
As the war continues, Lavrova wants people to know that she isn’t the daughter of any Russian politician.
“I have no relation to that person, and I can’t influence that minister to stop it,” she said.
Lavrova is hoping to get the word out in an effort to stop the attacks.
"We are praying for this war to end and I understand that is a difficult time for many people," she told The Sun.
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