The Russian influence campaign - their right-wing accomplices gonna squeal like stuck pigs

ipatent said:
Putin just endorsed Harris.
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Let's face reality. Putin did this with a smirk on his face. He was not serious and just trying to undermine the recent DOJ indictments of the Russian election influence operation.

Anyone who thinks Putin actually supports Kamala has a screw loose.

Smirking Vladimir Putin says he supports Kamala Harris after American spy agencies said Russian election meddling favours Donald Trump as they launched effort to counter Kremlin election interference
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/ar...n-election-meddling-favours-Donald-Trump.html

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gwb-trading said:
So the right-wing influencers are claiming either "first amendment free speech" or "I didn't know" as their excuse.

Well, it should have been obvious when their paychecks were in rubles. :sneaky::)

Let's catch up with a few of the Russian-paid influencers and their whining as they try to avoid indictment.

Right-Wing Influencers Tied to Russian Disinfo Campaign Say They Are ‘Victims’
https://time.com/7018028/conservati...ssia-disinformation-indictment-tenet-victims/

After the Department of Justice issued an indictment Wednesday accusing Russia of using American right-wing commentators to peddle propaganda ahead of the November election, several public figures linked to the scandal have spoken out, claiming that they are “victims” of the alleged influence operation.

According to the indictment, two employees at Russian state media RT have been secretly funding a Tennessee-based media company with nearly $10 million, laundered through foreign shell entities. The company allegedly paid some commentators hundreds of thousands of dollars a month to make videos—mainly about political issues—for its platforms, and the two RT employees allegedly deceived the commentators about where the company’s funding came from.

One of the company’s co-founders was also allegedly paid by ANO TV-Novosti, the parent organization of RT, to write opinion articles published on the news site, according to the indictment.

While the indictment did not name the media company or any of the commentators, observers quickly noted that its descriptions matched that of Tenet Media, a right-wing content company founded in 2022, and its contributors. Tenet posts videos promoting conservative narratives on issues including immigration, inflation, and gender—many of which were “edited, posted, and directed” by one of the RT employees, according to the indictment.


“While the views expressed in the videos are not uniform, the subject matter and content of the videos are often consistent with the Government of Russia’s interest in amplifying U.S. domestic divisions in order to weaken U.S. opposition to core Government of Russia interests, such as its ongoing war in Ukraine,” the indictment said.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Wednesday that “the Justice Department will be aggressive in countering and disrupting attempts by the Russian government, or any other malign actor, to interfere in our elections and undermine our democracy.”

In the wake of the bombshell indictment suggesting their unwitting involvement in spreading disinformation, some of the commentators associated with Tenet Media have posted responses on social media. They’ve emphasized that they maintained editorial control over their content but that, if the allegations are true, then they are “victims.” Here’s what they’ve said.

Benny Johnson

benny-johnson-russian-disinfo.jpg


Benny Johnson, a 37-year-old former BuzzFeed plagiarist-turned-conservative commentator with nearly 2.4 million YouTube subscribers, wrote on X that a year ago his company negotiated a “standard, arms length deal” with a media startup that was later terminated. Johnson is a regular host on Tenet videos, with his latest video published on Wednesday.

“We are disturbed by the allegations in today’s indictment, which make clear that myself and other influencers were victims in this alleged scheme,” he said.

Dave Rubin

dave-rubin-russia-disinfo.jpg


“These allegations clearly show that I and other commentators were the victims of this scheme,” Dave Rubin, a regular host of Tenet’s YouTube videos, wrote on X to his 1.5 million followers. “I knew absolutely nothing about any of this fraudulent activity. Period.”

Rubin is also the creator and host of the YouTube political talk show The Rubin Report, which has 2.5 million subscribers, and has described himself as a former left-leaning progressive before becoming a conservative

Tim Pool

tim-pool-russia-disinfo.jpg


Tim Pool, the 38-year-old right-wing commentator and host of Tenet’s podcast series “The Culture War with Tim Pool,” wrote on X, where he has over 2 million followers, that the podcast “existed well before any license agreement with Tenet and it will continue to exist after any such agreement expires.”

“Never at any point did anyone other than I have full editorial control of the show and the contents of the show are often apolitical,” Pool said. “Should these allegations prove true, I as well as the other personalities and commentators were deceived and are victims.”

Tayler Hansen

Tayler Hansen, another regular host on Tenet, wrote on X, where he has over 173,000 followers, that the allegations “come as a complete shock.”

“I want to be as clear as possible, I was never directed to report on any topic and had complete freedom and control over my reporting at all times,” he said, adding that with the election coming up this is “a big smear job against an uncensored, unapologetic, and America first media company.”

He also appeared to mock the DOJ indictment in another post, with a screenshot of his video on Tenet, sarcastically describing his coverage of a protest as “Russian election disinformation effort.”


Matt Christiansen

Matt Christiansen, a conservative YouTuber with over 235,000 subscribers, acknowledged in a live stream on Wednesday that he was referenced in the DOJ document as “Commentator-6.”

“If this was some big propaganda op, phenomenally bad job,” he said, adding that there was no evidence of Russian influence during the company’s operation. “I was not duped, wittingly or unwittingly. Everyone’s been honest with me, as far as I’m aware.”
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Where is TSINGTAO? Probably on vacation in his homeland.
 
The indictments keep coming...

DOJ indicts former Trump campaign adviser, Russian intel officers in new cases
https://thehill.com/policy/national-security/4864244-justice-department-russian-charges/

The Justice Department announced additional actions against Russian figures Thursday, filing charges against a former Trump campaign adviser and his wife, as well as several Russian intelligence hackers who targeted Ukrainian assets.

Dimitri Simes, who through his think tank was an adviser to former President Trump’s 2016 campaign, along with his wife, Anastasia Simes, are alleged to have violated sanctions laws in aiding Russian broadcaster Channel One Russia, which is prohibited from operating in the U.S.

Simes served as a presenter and producer for the channel, and allegedly received more than $1 million in payments as well as “a personal car and driver, a stipend for an apartment in Moscow, Russia, and a team of 10 employees from Channel One Russia.” Channel One Russia has been sanctioned under the Office of Foreign Assets Control.

Anastasia Simes also allegedly aided in another effort to evade sanctions against a Russian oligarch by surreptitiously purchasing art and antiques on his behalf and later shipping them to Russia.

Also Thursday in Baltimore, prosecutors announced a superseding indictment that added five more Russian individuals to a case prosecuting those involved in hacking Ukrainian government systems ahead of Russia’s invasion of the country. A prior indictment charged just one of the men involved, while the new indictment adds charges for five individuals it says work for Russia’s GRU intelligence service.

In both cases, the defendants are at large, and the U.S. is offering a $10 million reward for anyone who can provide information on the GRU members’ whereabouts or activities.

“The GRU’s WhisperGate campaign, including targeting Ukrainian critical infrastructure and government systems of no military value, is emblematic of Russia’s abhorrent disregard for innocent civilians as it wages its unjust invasion,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the National Security Division said in a release announcing the indictment.

The indictment alleges “these GRU hackers and their co-conspirator engaged in a conspiracy to hack into, exfiltrate data from, leak information obtained from and destroy computer systems associated with the Ukrainian Government in advance of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The defendants did so in order to sow concern among Ukrainian citizens regarding the safety of their government systems and personal data.”

The two additional cases targeting Russian citizens come one day after after the Justice Department unsealed an indictment brought against two Russians accused of working with American companies to promote content designed to sow political divisions in the U.S. and promote pro-Russia views.

And in another action Wednesday, the Justice Department announced it had seized 23 different websites it says were used by Russians to peddle misinformation or otherwise seek to influence the 2024 election.

In doing so, they released exhibits that included dual-language planning documents to “amplify domestic divisions” and “secur[e] Russia’s preferred outcome in the election.”
 
Russian trolling 2.0: How the Kremlin shifted tactics from its 2016 election strategy
https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/05/poli...s-from-its-2016-election-strategy?cid=ios_app

The recent US indictment of two employees of Russian state-run media network RT underscores a significant shift in the Kremlin’s tactics to influence US elections since 2016, current and former US officials told CNN.

Rather than relying on fake accounts and bogus online personas, the current effort alleged in this week’s indictment involves coopting real American influencers to try to push Russian narratives to US audiences, particularly aimed at undermining support for Ukraine.

The indictment alleges that the RT employees secretly poured nearly $10 million into a Tennessee company that hired prominent right-wing commentators who produced content on hot-button political issues, including Russia’s war on Ukraine. The influencers say they were unaware of any Russian hand in the operations of the media company, which CNN has identified as Tenet Media, and that they controlled their own content.

“Buying authentic influencers is a far better use of funds than creating fake personas, because they bring their own trusting audiences and are actually, you know, real,” Renee DiResta, an expert on online influence operations, said in a social media post.

With its US offices forced to shut down in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, RT has resorted to more covert operations to disseminate its message, prosecutors allege.

That shift shows that Russia’s best bet for undermining US support for Ukraine may lie in capitalizing on influential American voices that bypass the mainstream media and are critical of aid to Kyiv, the sources said.

“The Russians have diversified well beyond the 2016 model,” said Chris Krebs, former head of the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. “It’s unclear what the real impact is, at least from a tactical perspective. My sense is that they’re not successful in changing specific behaviors or decisions, like the outcome of a single election,” Krebs said. “However, it’s much more likely that the Russians’ efforts are burning on a longer fuse, and we don’t quite understand the real damage done just yet.”

‘It’s night and day’
The shift in Russian tactics also shows a keen understanding of a fractured media environment in the US. Where in 2016, Russian intelligence prioritized leaking hacked information in order to reach mainstream news outlets, they’re now tapping directly into a disparate corner of conservative media, where individual podcasters reach an audience that rivals that of traditional newspapers.

As a result, Russia no longer needs to orchestrate the kind of hack-and-leak operation it used to great effect in 2016, when Russian intelligence officers stole a trove of emails from Democratic officials and leaked them to Wikileaks.

The Russians thought that American media outlets would see Wikileaks as a relatively credible source of information, according to Michael van Landingham, a former CIA official who assessed the 2016 Russian activity.

“But now, in the absence of a current hack-and-leak campaign, Russia has reverted to the age-old tactic of supporting public voices that express views aligned with Russian messaging,” van Landingham said.

Artificial intelligence has also made it much easier for Russian (or any other) intelligence agencies to pose as Americans online with fake photos and bios.

“It’s night and day,” said Emerson Brooking, a resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab. Compared to 2016, this time, “Russian actors showed a far more sophisticated understanding of the US information environment,” Brooking said.

It’s also unclear how useful hack-and-leak operations would be in 2024. Journalists are more attuned to foreign influence efforts, and at least one known operation aimed at influencing this year’s election has had questionable impact.

Iran conducted its own hack-and-leak this summer, stealing documents from the Trump campaign and sending them to multiple major news outlets, as CNN previously reported. But there was little news coverage of the content of the stolen documents, partly because they were unremarkable.

‘It’s mostly a grift cycle’
The Justice Department also on Wednesday seized dozens of fake news sites that other Russian companies used to closely mimic the appearance of Fox News and the Washington Post. The Russian companies used ChatGPT, the popular AI tool, to write some of their content, according to an FBI affidavit.

Internal project documents from one of the Russian companies propose targeting US voters in six swing states with disinformation, hitting on themes such as the “risk of job loss for white Americans” and the purported threat of crime from “Ukrainian immigrants,” according to the affidavit.

“They obsessed over impact and set clear targets,” Brooking said.

But measuring the impact and efficacy of Russian influence efforts is difficult. The influencers hired by Tenet Media, including Benny Johnson and Tim Pool, say they were victims of the alleged Russian scheme. They had millions of followers to whom they’ve been broadcasting their views long before, according to the indictment, RT employees invested in Tenet Media.

“I’m skeptical that this operation would have resulted in preaching to anyone who wasn’t already converted,” Gavin Wilde, a former National Security Council official focused on Russia, told CNN.

“It’s mostly a grift cycle,” said Jason Kikta, a former US Cyber Command official now with security firm Automox. “The Russian money lets them expand operations within the ideologically aligned population to further grift, while the Russians can claim fanciful success within their government for budget and career promotion.”
 
Just the tip of the iceberg. I expect more indictments are coming.

Unsealed FBI Doc Exposes Terrifying Depth of Russian Disinfo Scheme
New court documents reveal that Russia is keeping a very, very long list of influencers to spread its propaganda.
https://newrepublic.com/post/185668/fbi-document-influencers-russian-disinformation

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.

“Today’s announcement exposes the scope of the Russian government’s influence operations and their reliance on cutting-edge AI to sow disinformation,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement about the charges. According to records, the plan was well known at even the highest levels of the Russian government—and Russian President Vladimir Putin himself may have been aware of the campaign.

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 Doppelganger program and its “Good Old USA Project” aimed to mimic mainstream media outlets to push pro-Russian policies through fake social media accounts. Documents show that the Kremlin specifically targeted Trump supporters, minorities, gamers, and swing-state voters by spreading far-right conspiracies and capitalizing on existing divisions in U.S. politics.

”They are afraid of losing the American way of life and the ‘American dream,’” Ilya Gambashidze, an architect of the project, wrote, outlining his scheme. “It is these sentiments that should be exploited in the course of an information campaign in/for the United States.” To do so, the Russian government would emphasize that Republicans are “victims of discrimination of people of color” and promote conspiracies that white middle-class people are being discriminated against.

The “guerrilla media” plan needed to not only plant falsehoods, but also spread them far and wide. They targeted gamers and chatroom users, who they described as the “backbone of the right-wing trends in the US segment of the Internet,” and monitored social media influencers. The Russians planned to build relationships with prolific posters who were “proponents of traditional values, who stand up for ending the war in Ukraine and peaceful relations between the US and Russia, and who are ready to get involved in the promotion of the project narratives.”

“We need influencers! A lot of them and everywhere. We are ready to wine and dine them,” wrote Gambashidze in a note from a meeting with Russian government officials.

Though this specific campaign has no official link with recent findings about Tenet Media’s work with Russian state media network RT, the goals are the same: “To secure victory for [Donald Trump].”
 
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