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.
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.
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.
Yes, what about this thing that has nothing to do with the subject of Russia influencing elections?
What's terrifying about buying off a couple of podcasters? The scale is dwarfed by any number of other countries.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Israelis are, though.
US business interests have more influence over Russian foreign policy than Russians have on the US.
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
Clearly not, or Russians wouldn't be able to slide cash into the pockets of social media influencers so easily.
They didn't. They got caught by the FBI and now we have massive news articles proving Russian influence. They literally just got caught, despite their best efforts at hiding.
Now comes the hard work at figuring out which of these 2800 influencers are fucking traitors... and which ones were just caught up in the mess. But someone in there had to have known that Russian money was part of this scheme.
After paying off the podcasters
Yes. That is how crimes work. The crime happens and then the FBI looks at you afterwards.
Are you... American? This crap is taught at grade school level.
Which banks facilitied these illegal donations and what sanctions are they going to suffer?
Banks are required to have KYC (know your customer) rules and report things to the FBI. Which the FBI received the reports and have caught the criminals.
I'm convinced you aren't American at this point and don't have any understanding of how crime or police work around here.
So which bank is being penalized for doing business with a Russian client operating under US sanctions?
Why stop there? Be convinced I'm not human at all.
Because you obviously are asking stupid questions that Americans already know the answer for.
For all the bullshit Europeans chastised me as an American for having an American centered viewpoints, we are talking about an American Police dealing with American Crimes in an efficient manner. And then we have someone in this discussion who doesn't even know the basics.
The least I expect of you is to at least pretend you have an American viewpoint of our police system and understand it (not necessarily agree with it). But if you want to ask dumb fucking questions all day imma call you out on your ignorance.
The bank that obviously reported this suspicious behavior to the FBI and got these assholes caught.
What, are you pissed that these Russians got caught in this scheme or something? This is a celebration topic. We caught the bad guys and caught them quickly before the election.
And then continued to advance the money? That doesn't pass the smell test and you know it.
This is just the HSBC drug money laundering scandal all over again, except these bankers aren't even being fined for getting caught.
Are they actually caught? Which employees of RT were arrested?
Or is this just shutting down some Internet domains and allowing the next batch of crooks to do this again?