RIGA, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- Latvian law enforcement authorities on Thursday arrested a 21-year-old man and his underage accomplice for disturbing public order by spreading disinformation through fake news websites they had created, local media reported.
A court ruled to remand the 21-year-old man in custody and he was taken to Riga Central Prison. The 15-year-old youth was released but has been banned from leaving the country.
Police informed that a criminal probe was launched in July after several companies and state institutions complained that the false information, which first appeared on several very similar websites and then spread via social networks, was causing security threats and public confusion.
Investigators established that a group of persons was operating at least seven websites spreading very similar content with the aim to lure as many users as possible and make them share this content on social networks in order to attract more visitors to the fake news sites.
The made-up stories appearing on these websites told mostly about various catastrophes, accidents and disasters like a collapse of a shopping mall, plane crashes and deadly bus accidents with multiple victims.
The intention was to feed people such shocking and misleading information to attract as many readers as possible and thus also more adverts, which in turn meant more income for the websites' owners.
Police have since shut down the fake news sites.
