Unsealed FBI Doc Exposes Terrifying Depth of Russian Disinfo Scheme
newrepublic.com
New court documents reveal that Russia is keeping a very, very long list of influencers to spread its propaganda.

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.

    • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
      483·
      3 months ago

      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.

        • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
          15·
          3 months 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.

      • Dasus@lemmy.world
        154·
        3 months 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?

      • A_Very_Big_Fan@lemmy.worldEnglish
        11·
        3 months 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

        • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
          31·
          3 months ago

          In [email protected], 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.

    • dragontamer@lemmy.worldEnglish
      361·
      3 months 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.

          • grue@lemmy.worldEnglish
            5·
            3 months 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.

      • Unruffled [he/him]@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        3·
        3 months ago

        A bit of self-promotion here, but check out [email protected] 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.

      • Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works
        8·
        3 months 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.

        • jonne@infosec.pub
          2·
          3 months 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.

    • Vilian
      22·
      3 months 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

      • cabron_offsets@lemmy.world
        21·
        3 months ago

        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.

        • Vilian
          11·
          3 months 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”

        • Vilian
          11·
          3 months 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

          • just_another_person@lemmy.world
            1·
            3 months 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.

            • Vilian
              1·
              3 months ago

              I agree, I just disagree that fediverse is bigger enough to gather that attention, we don’t even have influencers here(that I know off) but the rest, that X is infested with pro-russia bots I totally believe

      • just_another_person@lemmy.world
        334·
        3 months 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.

        • Grimy@lemmy.world
          1236·
          3 months 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.

            • Grimy@lemmy.world
              810·
              3 months ago

              I’d argue they are still most likely just idiots that got wrapped up in foreign propaganda, and not necessarily paid to post on lemmy of all places.

              I just think calling people bots and shills has no place in honest discourse and the brushstroke always tends to get bigger and bigger.

              • ochi_chernye@startrek.website
                11·
                3 months ago

                I just think calling people bots and shills has no place in honest discourse and the brushstroke always tends to get bigger and bigger.

                Bots and shills have no place in honest discourse, but they obviously exist. Should we pretend they don’t—assume everyone is arguing in good faith, regardless of how blatantly dishonest and inconsistent they are? What would you suggest?

                I don’t disagree that there’s a slippery slope problem; there’s no shortage of fringe internet echo chambers that dismiss all dissenting opinions as coming from npc’s, cia shills, shitlibs, bloodmouths, breeders, <insert dehumanizing label>, etc.

                • Grimy@lemmy.world
                  41·
                  3 months ago

                  Should we pretend they don’t—assume everyone is arguing in good faith

                  It’s a though problem but essentially yes. We should only ban because of content, so anything pro-putin would get the hammer but that comes with it’s own problems. It’s hard to draw the line. Is being pro-isreal an acceptable stance (not morally, thats obvious, but ban wise)? What about being pro-gasoline cars? I’ve been tempted many times to assume people bashing EVs are oil industry shills but it’s really just people that fell for their propaganda and not someone that is actively participating in it. For the most part, downvotes do their job but everyone knows those can easily be manipulated as well.

                  If the news was about pro-AI bots floating around, I would probably be accused of being one because I’m very outspoken about it when it’s a dissenting opinion on lemmy.

                  I just don’t think it’s a good standard to keep. I don’t have a solution but I think trying to call out people on it will just end up in people calling each other that when ever an argument goes badly. In the end, I view it as a form of rhetoric.

                  • ochi_chernye@startrek.website
                    5·
                    3 months ago

                    I guess what we want to do is to cultivate a community where people—and especially bots—will have a hard time engaging dishonestly. Having said that, I’m no closer to knowing how to do it. The struggle with misinformation disinformation seems like an arms race where the bad actors will always have the advantage.

                • Grimy@lemmy.world
                  42·
                  3 months ago

                  Where in the article does it mention lemmy? As far as I am concerned, we do not have any influencers and we definitely won’t be on the list.

                  I’m just saying assuming people are bots is a bad habit. Why not just assume I’m a paid shills and disregard my points? See how easy it is and why it shouldn’t be encouraged?

          • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.worldEnglish
            310·
            3 months 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.

            • InternetUser2012@lemmy.today
              32·
              3 months ago

              It’s real easy to tell who is a troll/bot though. All you have to do is ask them a few questions, they will respond with a quote, and only answer one. Why do you think they only answer one? Why not answer two or three? What’s really weird is no where in this thread was Netanyahu mentioned besides you?

              • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.worldEnglish
                12·
                3 months ago

                It’s real easy to tell who is a troll/bot though.

                From your perspective, it’s anyone who doesn’t love being Netanyahu’s genocide weapons supplier.

                All you have to do is ask them a few questions, they will respond with a quote, and only answer one. Why do you think they only answer one? Why not answer two or three?

                Well, either they agree with them or don’t want to bother responding to unhinged bullshit. Maybe one thing you said stood out as particularly wrong. Maybe you aren’t as entitled to having all your questions answered as you think you are.

                What’s really weird is no where in this thread was Netanyahu mentioned besides you?

                Putting a question mark at the end of a declarative sentence doesn’t make it a question, but you’ll demand to see a manager if I don’t answer it anyway. I mentioned Netanyahu because of people who see someone who is upset about genocide and immediately shriek “foreign troll!”

                Which is prevalent behavior on lemmy. Thank you for illustrating my point by suggesting that I am a foreign troll, as you have done multiple times in response to my opposition to selling Netanyahu weapons for genocide.