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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Guaranteed they are all over the Fediverse and probably hosting their own instances.
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.
I, for one, will not return to allowing that particular guy back on my feed.
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.
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
In !politics@lemmy.world, for example, it is against the rules to accuse another user of being a bot or paid actor. Any post suggesting a user might be will likely be removed at the minimum.
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.
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.
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.
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
Sure it is. Plenty of platforms are tied into federated information. Bluesky, Mastodon, Threads…
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
Have you seriously not seen advertising and obvious political propaganda on here? Look up anything by that Jimmy Dore guy, for instance. And the guy whose name is like amoxtli or some shit.
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.
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.
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)
Where are my republican “there is no Russian influence in the election” now?
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.
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.
