The Justice Department is determined to stop the investigation of a Russian propaganda campaign that used artificial intelligence to spread disinformation in the United States and other countries

In July, the Justice Department said it disrupted a Russian propaganda campaign that used artificial intelligence tools and relied on fake social media accounts impersonating Americans to spread disinformation in the U.S. and other countries. It said the effort involved an editor at RT.

The effort was meant to reduce international support for Ukraine, bolster pro-Russian policies, and influence voters in the U.S. and elsewhere, the Justice Department said.

The U.S channel of Russia’s propaganda station, “RT America”, was dropped by many cable distributors in the US after Russia invaded Ukraine. The indictment claimed that there was a video scheme that allowed RT to reach American audiences.

As part of the Doppelganger investigation, the DOJ said it seized 32 internet domains used in the effort, and named Russian companies Social Design Agency (SDA), Structura National Technology (Structura), and ANO Dialog as being involved in the effort.

The effort involved Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, including First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Executive Office Sergei Vladilenovich Kiriyenko, it said.

The Biden administration used Wednesday’s announcements to warn malicious actors against interfering with US elections. The Justice Department will not tolerate attempts by an authoritarian regime to exploit our country’s free exchange of ideas, Attorney General Garland said in a statement after the announcement of the indictment of the RT employees.

In a statement on its website prior to the charges, RT jokingly said that their responses in an office poll included comments like “Ha!” and “2016 called and it wants its clichés back.”

Doppleganger campaign against Russia during the 2024 Ukrainian presidential election: U.S. intelligence and security officials warned against Russia’s influence on foreign policy

United States intelligence and security officials have been warning for months about Russia’s efforts to interfere in the 2024 election, specifically to undermine the Democratic presidential nominee, exploit social divisions, sow distrust in democratic institutions and to erode support for Ukraine.

“Russia remains the most active foreign threat to our elections,” Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told senators in May at a briefing about election risks.

The campaign, which was first identified by researchers at EU DisinfoLab in 2022 and was given the name Doppleganger, has impersonated news outlets including The Washington Post and Fox News, and it has posed as NATO, the Polish and Ukrainian governments, the German police and the French Foreign Ministry.

In March, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned two Russian companies, Social Design Agency and Structura, as well as their founders, for launching a network of fake accounts and phony news websites, saying they carried out the campaign “at the direction of the Russian Presidential Administration.”

The campaign used fake French language news sites to warn of potential violence at the Paris Olympics, according to a Microsoft report.

The bot farm used AI to create the fake profiles on X, formerly known as Twitter. The accounts supported Russia’s war in Ukraine. The effort and the AI software behind it were organized by an editor at RT, the Russian state-owned media outlet, the Justice Department alleged. The project was funded by the Kremlin and run by a Russian intelligence officer.

The influence campaign, which was allegedly directed by members of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s inner circle, created media brands or closely mimicked existing ones to spread Russian government propaganda, according to the US. They also allegedly created fake social media personas of non-Russian citizens to post comments.

“This seizure illustrates vividly what the U.S. government and private sector partners have warned for months: the Russian government and its proxies are aggressively accelerating the Kremlin’s covert efforts to seed false stories and amplify disinformation directed at the American public,” DOJ National Security Division chief Matthew G. Olsen said in a statement.

Afanasyeva allegedly exerted a lot of control over the Tennessee company’s operations and what it put out, including pushing for specific angles that echoed Kremlin narratives.

The DOJ claimed that Tenet received around 9 million dollars from the Russian Broadcasting Corporation. It says that the production companies of three unnamed commentators received $8.7 million. One, referred to as “Commentator-1”—the description appears to be of either Johnson or Rubin—was allegedly contracted for $400,000 per month for four weekly videos. The nearly $10 million Tenet Media allegedly received from RT “represents nearly 90%” of funds deposited in the company’s accounts, the DOJ claims.

None of the people are accused of wrongdoing, and they did not respond to requests for comment. “We are disturbed by the allegations in today’s indictment,” Johnson wrote on X, referring to himself and his lawyers, “which make clear that myself and other influencers were victims in this alleged scheme.” Pool also released a statement on X, saying in part that “should these allegations prove true, I as well as the other personalities and commentators were deceived and are victims.” Rubin shared Pool’s post.

With the tagline “Fearless voices live here,” Tenet Media’s network includes online creators known for their right-wing politics, including Johnson, Pool, Dave Rubin, and Lauren Southern. In addition to the followings of the network’s individual creators, which collectively number in the millions, Tenet Media itself boasts more than 315,000 followers on YouTube and thousands more across Facebook, Instagram, X, and TikTok.

Investigating Russian Political Influence on the Media Startup X Factors: An Indictment of Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva

Federal officials have accused Russia of using unwitting right-wing American influencers in its quest to spread Kremlin propaganda ahead of the 2024 presidential election.

“The company never disclosed to the influencers or to their millions of followers its ties to RT and the Russian government,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Wednesday.

Afanasyeva encouraged the influencer to share the videos on their own channels, and became annoyed when she didn’t think they were promoting them enough according to the indictment.

Johnson said he had been pitched by a “media startup” and had “negotiated a standard, arms length deal, which was later terminated.” His most recent video on Tenet Media’s YouTube channel is from August 29th.

The Tennessee company offered lucrative terms, according to the indictment. One influencer was paid $400,000 a month, a $100,000 signing bonus, and an additional performance bonus in exchange for four videos a week.

Afanasyeva also allegedly requested the company post a video of “a well-known U.S. political commentator visiting a grocery store in Russia” — likely a reference to former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, who traveled to Moscow in February. According to the indictment, a producer at the company told one of the founders “it just feels like overt shilling,” but was told to “put it out there.”

There was no effort made to influence me in that way. Matt Christiansen a Tenet Media contributor said in a livestream on Wednesday evening that there is no change in his perspective or nature. “How am I unwittingly duped into saying someone else’s words when I wrote every one of them?”

The show’s contents are often apolitical, and anyone other than Pool has full editorial control of it. There isn’t input from anyone outside the company when the show is produced in its entirety.

The influencers were unaware of the project’s Russian connections. On Wednesday, Johnson, Pool and Rubin posted statements on X describing themselves as victims. Southern didn’t respond to a request for comment.

The indictment accuses Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva of working with the Tennessee company’s founders to conceal the true origins of its funding. They told some contributors that the company was being backed by a wealthy European banker named Eduard Grigoriann. “In truth and in fact, Grigoriann was a fictional persona,” the indictment said.

“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.

Source: How Russian operatives covertly hired U.S. influencers to create viral videos

How to Buy Real Influencers Using Funds from Wall Street Coincidences? A Post by Renée DiResta on Threads

“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,” wrote Renée DiResta, the author of Invisible Rulers: The People Who Turn Lies Into Reality, about how online influencers spread propaganda and rumors, in a post on Threads.

What sets the RT operation apart from many other interference efforts is that it appeared to reach a real audience, thanks to the recognizable names attached.