Unsealed FBI doc exposes terrifying depth of Russian disinfo scheme

2 years ago by MicroWave to c/politics

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.

…

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.

TallonMetroid 110 points 2 years ago

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.

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sramder 34 points 2 years ago

Not a lawoligist, but I suspect they plan on pressing charges ;-)

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PrettyFlyForAFatGuy 27 points 2 years ago

Wont be in time for the election though, so the damage will be done

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BeMoreCareful 16 points 2 years ago

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.

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jaemo 6 points 2 years ago

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.

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SpaceCowboy 3 points 2 years ago

Yeah those intelligence estimates about being able to take over Ukraine in a couple of weeks and they'd be greeted as liberated was some top tier spycraft.

Really Putin is kinda shit at the spy stuff. Just that it's super easy to acquire assets when there's a lot of people that only care about making money and don't ask a lot of questions about where it's coming from.

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eatCasserole 2 points 2 years ago

This is a list of people "to monitor and potentially groom". You can't exactly charge someone with "being monitored".

Not to say collaboration isn't happening—it sounds like it absolutely is, but this is not the list of collaborators.

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sramder 2 points 2 years ago

Fair point. In my defense I hit a paywall and just kind of gave up, did a bit of assuming there 😅

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Arcka 5 points 2 years ago

The affidavit does not mention the full list of influencers [...]

Well, why not? Name and shame all of them.

FTOP:

keeping a list of more than 2,800 influencers world wide [...] to monitor and potentially groom

You want to persecute the victims? These people are being targeted by the Russian state and probably haven't done anything wrong. They should be protected from that, and also from those who are too quick to judge before they understand the situation.

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SpaceCowboy 2 points 2 years ago

Eh, they're small potatoes. I think they need to go after the social media companies for allowing this to happen. You're never going to get anywhere by trying to go after idiots that are just saying whatever they think will get them promoted in by the algorithm. It's the companies that make algorithms that can be easily manipulated by bots from a foreign adversary that need to be shamed. And asked some hard questions about what they knew and when they knew it.

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just_another_person 92 points 2 years ago

Guaranteed they are all over the Fediverse and probably hosting their own instances.

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Boddhisatva 45 points 2 years ago

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kescusay 19 points 2 years ago

I, for one, will not return to allowing that particular guy back on my feed.

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grue 15 points 2 years ago

That guy gets on my nerves, but I've read enough from him on various topics that I'm pretty confident he's a genuine user. Don't get me wrong, he's for sure an ideologue who's no fun at parties, but I don't think he's a bot or that he's saying things he was instructed to say and doesn't actually care deeply about.

There's another user, with a three-word-phrase username, that I would describe similarly.

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ochi_chernye 5 points 2 years ago

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Dasus 11 points 2 years ago

will get the mods to start taking action against the most blatant ones.

I've heard it from a reliable source, a Lemmy.ml mod, that there's simply no Russian activity on Lemmy. Would you like to know who?

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A_Very_Big_Fan 0 points 2 years ago

Wait, I think I know the instance you're talking about but since when are we not allowed to say anything about it? Or do you just mean on .ml you can't do that

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Boddhisatva 2 points 2 years ago

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dragontamer 35 points 2 years ago

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.

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InternetUser2012 9 points 2 years ago

What happens when your mods are part of it?

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Plastic_Ramses 15 points 2 years ago

Move to a different instance.

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grue 5 points 2 years ago

Not just that. If it's just the mods of one community, appeal to the instance admins. If the admins are part of the problem, don't just move to a different instance yourself, also try to raise awareness and convince the rest of Lemmy to defederate.

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Gigasser 3 points 2 years ago

Or shit, make your own instance and have your own mods lol.

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Flatworm7591 3 points 2 years ago

A bit of self-promotion here, but check out !fediverse_vs_disinfo@lemmy.dbzer0.com if you want to stay up to date on recent disinformation campaigns. It's obviously not going to solve the problem, but it's one more tool to help identify and fight the disinfo peddlers.

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jonne 6 points 2 years ago

Do you think it's big enough to bother with?

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Corkyskog 8 points 2 years ago

For instance admins, definitely? For the government or other organizations... lol, no. Lemmy is such a very small pie segment of social media... and that's part of why I love it.

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jonne 2 points 2 years ago

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Sure, people will spin up their own instance and run it according to their own biases, but I don't see Russia or Israel or whomever running bots specifically to push things one way or another like they do with Twitter, Facebook or Reddit.

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InternetUser2012 5 points 2 years ago

I'll bet there are some mods in on it too.

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YeetPics 1 point 2 years ago

cousneezefartcough .ml cough

Sorry, did that sound like words?

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Vilian 0 points 2 years ago

I don't buy it fediverse is cool and all, but it isn't in a anyway relevant for misinformation, X, Facebook, reddit and politians are perfect for that, why bother with the less than 1%, they probably don't even know what fediverse is

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cabron_offsets 1 point 2 years ago

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Vilian 0 points 2 years ago

I saw alot of dump communist propaganda, that's is usually based on "USA bad, so everyone that disagree with them are good" so they love China and Russia, but the Russia propaganda towards right wings, are more like "Democrats are communists so we must defeat them"

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just_another_person 1 point 2 years ago

Sure it is. Plenty of platforms are tied into federated information. Bluesky, Mastodon, Threads...

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Vilian 0 points 2 years ago

Idk man, bluesky and mastodon are big enough?, mastodon don't has personal algorithms so it's not that efficient, and threads? Where most right-wings-trump-supporters are? YouTube, tiktok and Facebook would be my bet, not threads

Also Russia make propaganda to right wings trump supporters, they are the opposite of what we see in Lemmy, far-left, "urss did not wrong"," USA is always wrong ", so anything that they do is obviously bad, and everyone who disagree with them are inherently good

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just_another_person 1 point 2 years ago

"X" is something like 70% bots now since the Elon takeover.

You can read other articles that specifically go into detail on why Russia is investing in video and audio influencers now, but that's mostly why.

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Grimy -38 points 2 years ago

Everyone that doesn't agree with me politically basically

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just_another_person 29 points 2 years ago

I've seen a lot of seriously obvious and unapologetic shilling for very out there positions around here. The further telltale sign is that when one popular poster starts getting regularly rebuffed and shutdown, backup arrives not long after to pollute a thread with their bullshit.

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Grimy -24 points 2 years ago

It's a slippery slope to start assuming people are bots or paid shills. Whos to say everyone that agreed with you at first weren't bots and then regular people came in and commented their own opinion that went against the first wave of bots?

Not everyone that thinks capitalism is broken is a paid Russian agent. I'm assuming that is what you are referring too. Some are very extreme in their views but the most likely explanation is that they are a combination of stupid and mad.

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just_another_person 26 points 2 years ago

Not the green party or communist not jobs necessarily, but the Pro-Putin, "Ukraine is Nazis", warmongering types...yup.

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Ensign_Crab -7 points 2 years ago

Not everyone that thinks capitalism is broken is a paid Russian agent. I’m assuming that is what you are referring too.

Pretty sure they're making veiled shill accusations at anyone who isn't 100% on board with arming Netanyahu until his genocide is complete.

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Blackmist 69 points 2 years ago

Remember: If your politicians say there is no Russian interference in your elections, they are the ones who have been funded.

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RememberTheApollo_ 59 points 2 years ago

Where are my republican “there is no Russian influence in the election” now?

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ChickenLadyLovesLife 14 points 2 years ago

I don't listen to the radio but my coworkers (school bus drivers) do so I overhear it from time to time. News reports keep mentioning "foreign interference in our elections" but scrupulously avoid mentioning a) it's Russia, and b) it's Russia interfering on behalf of Trump and the Republicans. Even fucking NPR is like this, most of the time. It should be obvious that any Republicans hearing this sort of "news" will believe it's a problem afflicting Democrats.

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fluxion 9 points 2 years ago

They will never hear about this in a non-obfuscated way

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InternetUser2012 7 points 2 years ago

They're currently brainstorming and waiting for their orders from fox "news". I expect we'll see a bunch of posts here in a few days about how it's all bullshit and blown out of proportion. Watch the names too, they'll all be accounts created a year or so ago and haven't posted for about 7 months.

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bender223 7 points 2 years ago

Shhhh....no Russian

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HK65 8 points 2 years ago

No puppet, no puppet, you're the puppet!

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Spazz 2 points 2 years ago

They'll still be saying that because they don't actually care about facts or evidence

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RememberTheApollo_ 1 point 2 years ago

Most likely true.

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joebiden 1 point 2 years ago

read the news

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EarthShipTechIntern 58 points 2 years ago

About damn time. Could have used this 8+ years ago. Might have stopped Drump's term in office.

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smayonak 21 points 2 years ago

The only person who did anything helpful got sent to jail (reality winner)

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grozzle 11 points 2 years ago

still haven't got used to that being her actual name.

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circuitfarmer 54 points 2 years ago

Every single conservative comment I have seen about this has claimed it is made up by the DOJ. That is the extent of it.

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the_crotch 18 points 2 years ago

Law and order party says the doj is corrupt next time on sick sad world

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JustEnoughDucks 11 points 2 years ago

"DOJ is corrupt but also police can do no wrong, let's give them tanks, until they are forced to be against our riots and then they are bad again, but only until we start saying that the riots weren't us and was the deep state actors, then they never did anything wrong"

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jaemo 2 points 2 years ago

You know when you're looking for a recipe and you get those long blog posts about "As a young lad, growing up on the farm, we'd often gather bargle nuts for the seasonal..." before finally getting you the info?

Well your post is like finding the recipe only. That's it. That's their formula.

This is how you bake fascist biscuits, no preamble.

You will only ever get the blog post version when actually talking to a conservative however.

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SassyRamen 9 points 2 years ago

To them DOJ < PUTIN

So don't expect anything different from those idiots.

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Zink 7 points 2 years ago

Better a Russian than Democrat Or Justice!

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LarmyOfLone 49 points 2 years ago

a terrifying indicator of how deep the Russian plot to interfere in U.S. politics really goes

It is despicable but remember that they only paid right wing trolls to do what they were already doing. This is how modern corruption works. Conservative and reactionary talk radio all across the US works like this. The only reason the GOP is so successful in rural areas is they are doing the exact same shit Russia is doing. Fund extremists to continue their bullshit. You don't need a "Quid Pro Quo", you just need to pick the right weirdos to boost.

And if you think this is terrifying, think of not just what leftists think of this inside the US, think of what people all around the world think of the US election interference. For decades and decades the US has interfered and overthrown democracies. They did in Euromaidan too.

So yeah, fuck Russia, just realize many countries rightfully think the same about the USA.

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rottingleaf -2 points 2 years ago

I would say election interference still mostly works in the "all the world trying to somehow affect US" way as opposed to "US interfering with some country's elections".

Simply because affecting the power balance in the metropoly is much more rewarding.

Russia is a scarecrow.

First, it's not new and even USSR during fscking Cold War would fund and influence the so-called progressive youth (not what's called progressive now) and parts of the Democratic Party. I guess that Biden guy stopped being a Soviet asset long before being elected president, but he definitely was at some point.

Second, Russian meddling is not even comparable to Israeli, Turkish, Saudi meddling. The problem is that they seem to agree with each other and often cooperate these years.

Third, it's not even a big deal, we know that politics involve such meddling. They wouldn't think the same about the USA if it would show some responsibility. Restore Iraq after fscking it up. Investigate war crimes and give some justice to their victims after that invasion. Protect Georgia against Russia. I guess the Marshall plan was for white Europeans only (it's funny BTW, people in ex-USSR in 1991 apparently expected that something like that will be attempted, but USA worked to cement the ex-Soviet elites and to help them neuter actual grassroots movements instead), but at least fixing things that wouldn't be broken without USA seemed logical.

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SpaceCowboy 6 points 2 years ago

Restore Iraq after fscking it up. Investigate war crimes and give some justice to their victims after that invasion. I guess the Marshall plan was for white Europeans only (it’s funny BTW, people in ex-USSR in 1991 apparently expected that something like that will be attempted, but USA worked to cement the ex-Soviet elites and to help them neuter actual grassroots movemen

Uh... the US tried to restore Iraq, it didn't go well. Nation building is hard and the US isn't particularly good at it. Calling on the US to do more nation building probably isn't a good idea.

Protect Georgia against Russia.

Currently weakening the Russian military in Ukraine. Do you want to broaden the war?

guess the Marshall plan was for white Europeans only (it’s funny BTW, people in ex-USSR in 1991 apparently expected that something like that will be attempted, but USA worked to cement the ex-Soviet elites and to help them neuter actual grassroots movements instead), but at least fixing things that wouldn’t be broken without USA seemed logical.

Are you saying the Eastern Europeans aren't white? Or that no money was spent in Afghanistan and Iraq? There's a difference between rebuilding allies and rebuilding while engaging in combat with a a resistance.

It doesn't seem to be a lot of thought in this particular "US bad" narrative. There are real criticisms to be made of US foreign policy but you're missing them all by a longshot. Maybe consider that the US isn't some nation of supermen that is capable of solving all of the world's problems but it just doesn't want to. It's more accurate to say the US isn't actually capable of solving many of the problems in the world, and tends to make a lot of messes by misunderstanding other countries and it's own capabilities.

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rottingleaf -1 points 2 years ago

You've skipped half or more of what I wrote. Especially about not putting in jail people who committed war crimes in Iraq and about supporting people like Putin against everyone else in the ex-USSR in the 90-s.

I'm not talking about nation building under American control, but killing a million of a country's population warrants reparations, international courts, official apologies (real ones) ...

Currently weakening the Russian military in Ukraine. Do you want to broaden the war?

In 2008, not currently.

It doesn’t seem to be a lot of thought in this particular “US bad” narrative. There are real criticisms to be made of US foreign policy but you’re missing them all by a longshot. Maybe consider that the US isn’t some nation of supermen that is capable of solving all of the world’s problems but it just doesn’t want to. It’s more accurate to say the US isn’t actually capable of solving many of the problems in the world, and tends to make a lot of messes by misunderstanding other countries and it’s own capabilities.

Yes, if you replace what I said with weird imagined things.

It doesn't take to be a nation of supermen to stop arming Turkey, Israel, Azerbaijan, put sanctions on them and forget they are of the same species.

And it seems to actually be close to "some nation of supermen" when supporting the bad guys. There's definitely some beef to US's capabilities when it wants to fuck something up and arm cannibals.

It's not that hard to not act. The problem with the US is that it does bad things, not that it doesn't do good things. But if it just can't play hegemon differently, then it could at least try to clean up sometimes.

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Stanley_Pain 26 points 2 years ago

Is anyone really surprised by this? Russia hasn't changed much in this particular way since before WWII ;).

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TheFonz 5 points 2 years ago

Not really, but it's nice to see the receipts. The indictments are pretty damning

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Stanley_Pain 2 points 2 years ago

Yes, yes it is 👍

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RampantParanoia2365 21 points 2 years ago

Cool, so just how many wars is Russia trying to fight at the moment?

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Daerun 18 points 2 years ago

I'd like to see that list.

Alongside the list of influencers US is paying to spread its propaganda.

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UnderpantsWeevil 13 points 2 years ago

terrifying scale

barely a percentage point compared to the fossil fuel industry's war on Green Energy

I suppose you could reasonably argue that Rex Tillerson and Vladimir Putin were already joined at the hip. But the US advertising and influencing industry is vast - $515B annually and growing. The Russians aren't even in the top ten of foreign influence peddlers. FFS, the Saudis bought golf.

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dragontamer 28 points 2 years ago

Saudis aren't trying to get Trump elected and directly meddle in the election.

And sure, the Saudis whitewash themselves and try to make us forget about Jamal. But Russia influence is really bad.

I'm not necessarily against foreign influence. Ukrainians have a right to make their case to us for example. But the Russian style disinfo is leading to conspiracy theories and a degeneration of our society.

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jonne 14 points 2 years ago

Lol yes they are. They're part owners of Twitter, which became a pro-Trump cesspool. That alone is orders of magnitude bigger than this Russian thing.

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UnderpantsWeevil -19 points 2 years ago

Saudis aren’t trying to get Trump elected

The Israelis are, though.

But Russia influence is really bad.

US business interests have more influence over Russian foreign policy than Russians have on the US.

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dragontamer 17 points 2 years ago

Russia is quite sanctioned, and the remaining US Business interest in Russia was looted / stolen by the Russians.

The business connection between USA and Russia is basically gone. Most (IE Elon Musk) are now making huge moves towards China now.

What remains are RT and other Russian disinfo groups

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UnderpantsWeevil -6 points 2 years ago

The business connection between USA and Russia is basically gone.

Clearly not, or Russians wouldn't be able to slide cash into the pockets of social media influencers so easily.

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billiam0202 17 points 2 years ago

Yes, what about this thing that has nothing to do with the subject of Russia influencing elections?

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UnderpantsWeevil -28 points 2 years ago

What's terrifying about buying off a couple of podcasters? The scale is dwarfed by any number of other countries.

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InternetUser2012 8 points 2 years ago

Let's play a little game of question and answer. For science. I bet you answer one. Do you think it was only a couple podcasters? What other countries do you think are worse with the misinformation than Russia? Where's your proof for such a claim? Your feelings?

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WhatYouNeed -2 points 2 years ago

AIPAC has entered the chat, and has money to spend.

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billiam0202 6 points 2 years ago

Yes, what is terrifying about Russia paying podcasters to spread pro-Russian propaganda, and social media posters trying to deflect from that story?

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Zipitydew 13 points 2 years ago

Wah but whatabout

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rsuri 10 points 2 years ago

Well Russia is part of that fossil fuel industry too, and they also hire lobbyists to push fossil fuels

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UnderpantsWeevil 2 points 2 years ago

It's a big club and you ain't in it

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ochi_chernye 6 points 2 years ago

barely a percentage point compared to the fossil fuel industry's war on Green Energy

That's not really relevant in this context, though, is it? Maybe a better comparison would be 2024 election spending by foreign-connected PACS. According to opensecrets.org, the "nearly $10 million" allegedly distributed by RT employees is equivalent to the sum of all other foreign pac money donated to the GOP this cycle. It's certainly not "dwarfed by any other country" as you spuriously claimed.

Saudi sportswashing and other shenanigans are also cause for concern. That in no way lessens the severity of this problem.

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UnderpantsWeevil -4 points 2 years ago

That’s not really relevant

It's illustrative of a system of "influencing" that Americans drown in daily. Russian propaganda peddlers are peeing into the sewer.

The panic is over the "Russian"-ness of this media. But the machine that manufacturers consent is merely on loan.

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grue 4 points 2 years ago

Russia might not spend as much money on propaganda as some other entities, but they punch above their weight in terms of tactics and effectiveness.

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Fedizen 9 points 2 years ago

4/5 are outside the US, does that mean most are in the EU?

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disconnectikacio 13 points 2 years ago

Yes, even goverments. For example orban in #orbanistan (hungary), fico in slovakia controlled putin. There are also parties controlled by putin, like afd in germany, le pen's party in france, also the brexit guy nigel farage putin's puppet

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cabron_offsets 3 points 2 years ago

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Ensign_Crab 7 points 2 years ago

And centrists will imagine that all of it is localized entirely on lemmy, in the form of anyone to their left.

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forrcaho 5 points 2 years ago

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.

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Space00 2 points 2 years ago

You absolutely don’t want to see half the shit said in discord.

It’s all awful.

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forrcaho 2 points 2 years ago

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.

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shasta 1 point 2 years ago

You think Microsoft can't keep tabs on what's said in discord servers? hmm nevermind, looks like that purchase did not go through. Still, they can absolutely monitor discord chat, and even voice chat. It is relatively common these days to have voice recordings transcribed automatically into text files, saved, and searchable. Even video games do that these days. Overwatch in particular does this for certain because they announced so with the release of Overwatch 2. I would assume all Blizzard games do this by now.

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forrcaho 1 point 2 years ago

Oh, sure, whatever corporate overlords are involved have unfettered access, but they're unlikely to analyze that data from a public safety perspective. Unhinged players are addicted to their products and no interest in making anything public that could cut into their profits.

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huzzahunimpressively 1 point 2 years ago

Lol, so aparently right wing will be lead by weabos and gamers, not by ultra religious men and women?

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forrcaho 1 point 2 years ago

There's nothing quite like not getting laid for fueling a wellspring of easily manipulated misogynist anger

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zante 4 points 2 years ago

Laughs in AIPAC

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TheFonz -2 points 2 years ago

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

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cabron_offsets 3 points 2 years ago

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Bernie_Sandals 1 point 2 years ago

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.

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TheFonz 0 points 2 years ago

It's been a really common talking point on right on the alt right for a while. To this day, no evidence has been substantiated to support this claim.

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SpaceCowboy -1 points 2 years ago

It's a major talking point in the pro-Palestinian crowd too. Though I feel like that group is shifting towards being alt right for this and many other talking points they have in common.

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Knock_Knock_Lemmy_In 0 points 2 years ago

So all Russia needs to do is register ARPAC inside the US and no-one can touch them.

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Bernie_Sandals 1 point 2 years ago

No...To get around FARA they could never fund it, or ever coordinate with its leadership, just how AIPAC is funded entirely by US citizens and is ran entirely by US citizens, and has zero connection to the Israeli government.

Which makes sponsoring an organization like this incredibly risky, which is why almost no one does it.

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TheFonz 1 point 2 years ago

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.

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MediaBiasFactChecker -11 points 2 years ago

New Republic - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)

Information for New Republic:

MBFC: Left - Credibility: High - Factual Reporting: High - United States of America
Wikipedia about this source

Wired Magazine - News Source Context (Click to view Full Report)

Information for Wired Magazine:

MBFC: Left-Center - Credibility: High - Factual Reporting: High - United States of America
Wikipedia about this source

Search topics on Ground.News

https://newrepublic.com/post/185668/fbi-document-influencers-russian-disinformation
https://newrepublic.com/post/185647/maga-russian-propagandists-victims-pool-johnson-rubin-tenet-media
https://www.wired.com/story/project-good-old-usa-russia-2024-election/

Media Bias Fact Check | bot support

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DogPeePoo -18 points 2 years ago

Somebody should take a long look at 🦚CNBC as well

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Badeendje 11 points 2 years ago

What are you implying here, I don't get it.

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Spazz -1 points 2 years ago

What a completely idiotic right wing Trumper comment

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Hobbes_Dent -57 points 2 years ago

Why now, FBI?

I don’t know how we are supposed to just think “oh what a co-inky-dink”. Maybe I’m missing some timeline stuff here but I keep seeing DOJ action based on unsealed FBI stuff. Great, but when was it sealed? They probably have sealed documents that say the sky is blue too.

Edit: ok then. It’s just asking why we see action now when we’ve all know it for a long time. Carry on.

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dragontamer 46 points 2 years ago

Probably because the Russians kicked up their campaign this year as the battle of Donesk went poorly for them.

Russia realizes that the #1 factor in their war for the Ukrainian East depends on getting Trump elected and the Republicans cutting aid.

The only reason Russia got Adviika was because Republicans cut aid between Nov 2023 and all of winter 2024. Shell hunger they called it, as the Ukrainians ran out of ammo and were forced to retreat from their fortress city.

Russia wants that to happen again. So they're kicking up their influence campaigns.

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Blackout 36 points 2 years ago

☝️ Found one

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Hobbes_Dent -26 points 2 years ago

Nice pitchfork.

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finley 8 points 2 years ago

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Zink 6 points 2 years ago

I’d just like to point out that Trump won’t be sentenced for his crimes committed to cheat in the 2016 election until after the 2024 election.

The justice system can move slowly, especially on career-defining cases.

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Honytawk 3 points 2 years ago

Why now? Because it is happening now.

You expect them to wait until after the election or something?

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Badeendje 2 points 2 years ago

Once an investigation culminates and it's time to roll up the targets, this is what happens. They have whole procedures for this, written down in books... You know the law.

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irreticent 1 point 2 years ago

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politics

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politics

@lemmy.world

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Welcome to the discussion of US Politics!

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Post only links to articles. Title must fairly describe link contents. If your title differs from the site’s, it should only be to add context or be more descriptive. Do not post entire articles in the body or in the comments.

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Articles must be relevant to US politics and contain quality and original content. Social Media adjacent hosts like Substack are allowed, but ONLY if they tie back to a company/subsidiary. No personal or friend group blogs and no self-promotion. Articles should be worth reading. Clickbait, stub articles, and re-hosted or stolen content are not allowed. Check your source for Reliability and Bias here.
Be civil, No violations of TOS. It’s OK to say the subject of an article is behaving like a (pejorative, pejorative). It’s NOT OK to say another USER is (pejorative). Strong language is fine, just not directed at other members. Engage in good-faith and with respect! This includes accusing other users of being bots or paid actors.
No memes, trolling, misinformation, or low-effort posts/comments (including reposts). If you see posts like this that anger you, do not engage. Report, block, and live a happier life than they do. Any slap-fight is subject to comment removals. Fights full of rule violations will result in temporary bans to cool off.
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