New court documents reveal that Russia is keeping a very, very long list of influencers to spread its propaganda.
The Russian disinformation plot revealed in a Justice Department indictment this week may just be the tip of the iceberg, according to newly unsealed court documents.
On Wednesday, the DOJ announced it would seize 32 internet domains linked to a larger Kremlin scheme to promote disinformation and influence the 2024 election. The Russian campaign, known as Doppelganger, uses AI-generated content to create “fake news” boosted through social media with the aim of electing Donald Trump.
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Of particular note, the documents released Wednesday included an affidavit that noted a Russian company is keeping a list of more than 2,800 influencers world wide, about one-fifth of whom are based in the United States, to monitor and potentially groom to spread Russian propaganda. The affidavit does not mention the full list of influencers, but is still a terrifying indicator of how deep the Russian plot to interfere in U.S. politics really goes.
The affidavit does not mention the full list of influencers, but is still a terrifying indicator of how deep the Russian plot to interfere in U.S. politics really goes.
Well, why not? Name and shame all of them. Normal political ads are required to tell you who paid for them (even if they only do it in the fine print). There’s no reason not to hold these schmucks to the same standard just because it’s TikTok vids or whatever instead of magazine or TV ads.
Not a lawoligist, but I suspect they plan on pressing charges ;-)
Wont be in time for the election though, so the damage will be done
I feel like they already got their money’s worth on interfering with elections.
They nabbed up several former Soviet republics and then publicly humiliated the states with the 2016 American election.
Say what you want about Putin, be he’s a helluva spy.
Say what you want about Putin, be he’s a helluva spy.
He’s so good that when he got intel that Kiev would fall in 3 days, he didn’t bother to check the validity of that info and instead went on confidently to…not take Kiev at all.
So: I’ll say what I want about Putin. He’s a monster, a liar, a thief, an unimaginative, uncreative leader, a terrible commander, and a shit spy. Putin lucked out on a saving roll. Period. Don’t elevate him any higher than the mud he walks on.
The 2015 propaganda campaign was a thing to watch though. I expected it to be more of a historical landmark by now. Instead, we’re still living it.
Where are my republican “there is no Russian influence in the election” now?
Guaranteed they are all over the Fediverse and probably hosting their own instances.
Yes but… Fediverse has more moderators and even server level bans where we can fight back.
It’s a different political makeup here on the Fediverse. It’s not like the Russians can hand money to just one or two CEOs and suddenly all of the moderators we trust here turn to the other side.
We need to keep our wits about us here. We came to Lemmy (and Fediverse) because centralized commercial control of our discussion spaces led to perverse incentives.
I only consider this political situation to be yet another test of the Fediverse. We have to survive it. But I also believe we moved to the Fediverse because we all believe we can do more about disinformation or malicious actors here on the Fediverse than on… Reddit or Facebook.
There are a few obvious ones around but it’s against the rules to even suggest that they could be shills or bots. Hopefully this news will get the mods to start taking action against the most blatant ones.
Remember: If your politicians say there is no Russian interference in your elections, they are the ones who have been funded.
About damn time. Could have used this 8+ years ago. Might have stopped Drump’s term in office.
The only person who did anything helpful got sent to jail (reality winner)
still haven’t got used to that being her actual name.
To me, this is the most interesting bit of the article
They targeted gamers and chatroom users, who they described as the “backbone of the right-wing trends in the US segment of the Internet,” [ … ]
We can kind of keep tabs on X or Facebook, but what goes down in Discord gamer chats is largely out of sight. I wish someone could drag more of this content out into the light of day where we could all see it.
You absolutely don’t want to see half the shit said in discord.
It’s all awful.
That’s why I want someone to summarize a sanitized version for me … so I have some sort of heads up on the next trend in stochastic terrorism without having to pluck my eyes out.
Laughs in AIPAC
AIPAC is based in the US and there is no evidence of foreign funds. I know it’s shocking to hear, but there is a large Jewish population in the US that happens to endorse Israel.
The entities in this indictment went out of their way to circumvent FARA
AIPAC is based in the US and there is no evidence of foreign funds
Thank you so much for mentioning this, I’ve seen wayyyyy too many people say that AIPAC is foreign interference with no backing.
So all Russia needs to do is register ARPAC inside the US and no-one can touch them.
You need evidence to substantiate that FARA was circumvented by funneling funds from foreign entities.
If US citizens want to set up an entity and fund a lobbying group that supports Russia they are allowed to do so, but the money has to originate from US sources. Maybe take a few minutes to understand how the law works.
You need evidence to substantiate that FARA was circumvented by funneling funds from foreign entities.
Why? Surely all PACs are fully transparent about the sources of their funds. Every dollar donated can be attributed to US citizens and, in turn, they can prove none of their income came from overseas.
Yea. Except that’s not how any of this works. You have a really cartoon level understanding of how finance works and how these orgs are audited. The world is not a James Bond movie where some rando hacks a linux terminal and breaks into the IMF.
Arguing about levels of understanding is irrelevant.
The point is that whatever works for AIPAC can be replicated for the Russian equivalent ARPAC.
