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.

  • LarmyOfLone@lemm.ee
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    2 months 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.

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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      2 months 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.

      • SpaceCowboy@lemmy.ca
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        2 months 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.

        • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
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          2 months 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.