Russia focusing on American social media stars to covertly influence voters

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By Christopher Bing, Katie Paul and Raphael Satter

(Reuters) – Russia is increasingly turning to American social media stars to covertly influence voters ahead of the 2024 presidential election, according to U.S. officials and recently unveiled criminal charges. 

“What we see them doing is relying on witting and unwitting Americans to seed, promote and add credibility to narratives that serve these foreign actors’ interest,” a senior intelligence official said in a briefing on Friday. “These foreign countries typically calculate that Americans are more likely to believe other Americans’ views.”

The approach is widely viewed by American security agencies as one of Russia’s preferred tactics this cycle in order to make their foreign psychological operations appear more authentic. Broadly, these missions typically seek to anger Americans, highlight societal divisions and emphasize partisan talking points while questioning the U.S. government’s effectiveness and role in global security, experts say. 

“We’re focusing on these tactics because the American public should know that content that they read online, especially on social media, could be foreign propaganda, even if it appears to be coming from fellow Americans,” another senior U.S. intelligence official said in a July briefing with reporters on election security. “In short, foreign influence actors are getting better at hiding their hand and using Americans to do it.” 

TENET 

On Wednesday, the Justice Department revealed criminal charges against two former employees of Russian media outlet Russia Today, or RT, who they say were covertly funding an American political media company. 

The indictment outlines an alleged scheme where the Russians sent about $10 million to two media business owners, Lauren Chen and Liam Donovan, who then paid American conservative influencers to create videos and social media posts. Some of the commentators had at different times shared anti-Ukraine content, which aligned with the effort’s priorities. Chen and Donovan did not respond to a request for comment. 

While the indictment does not name the accused media outlet, Reuters found it is a Tennessee-based firm named Tenet Media, which publicly describes itself as the home for “fearless voices.” Tenet did not respond to repeated requests for comment. Historically, it has employed several prominent social media figures, including podcaster Tim Pool and former journalist Benny Johnson, among others. 

The indictment notes that Chen and Donovan knew they were accepting money from the Russian operatives, but that the commentators they paid appeared unaware of the arrangement. 

Tenet managed a YouTube channel and various other social media profiles, where it published videos and audio recordings from its contributors. According to court documents, Tenet’s founders directed one unnamed commentator to make false claims online to their viewers that it was Ukraine and not ISIS who was responsible for a deadly terrorist attack in Moscow in April. 

Pool and Johnson released statements late Wednesday acknowledging the indictment against Tenet. Pool said “never at any point did anyone other than I have full editorial control of the show” and that “I as well as the other personalities and commentators were deceived and are victims.” Johnson similarly wrote in a statement that he was “disturbed by the allegations in today’s indictment, which make clear that myself and other influencers were victims in this alleged scheme.” 

Experts say the scheme fits a historical trend. 

“Paying journalists or front media outlets was a very established process for laundering propaganda during the Cold War for example, this is sort of a digital update to that,” said Renee DiResta, a digital disinformation analyst. “That they use influencers rather than journalists is interesting — a recognition of where the influential voices in the community are.” 

DOPPELGANGER

In a related but separate filing made on Wednesday, the Justice Department also exposed a different Russian operation, known as Doppelganger, that impersonated actual Western news outlets and shared false information about U.S. political candidates and the war in Ukraine. This effort was allegedly orchestrated by the Russian government through a group of Russian marketing agencies named Social Design Agency, Structura National Technology and ANO Dialog. 

Among the evidence submitted to the court, prosecutors cited internal presentations from the Russian marketing agencies that explained their approach and tools. A key element of the program, according to the documents, involved identifying western influencers who share sympathetic views and finding ways to collaborate with them. 

One presentation notes how they “work with influencers among proponents of traditional values who stand up for ending the war in Ukraine and peaceful relations between the US and Russia and who are ready to get involved in the promotion of the project narratives. Among them are actors, politicians, experts in different areas, media representatives, social organizations’ activists and clergymen, etc.” 

A second presentation states the Russian companies are actively monitoring a total of 2,800 influencers, 600 of whom are based in the U.S., including radio hosts, bloggers and comedians. 

“Russian influence actors have undertaken distinct efforts during this election cycle to build and use networks of U.S. and other Western personalities to create and disseminate Russian friendly narratives,” said the senior intelligence official. “These personalities post content on social media, write for various websites with overt and covert ties to the Russian government and conduct other media efforts.” 

It is not clear how or when the FBI warns American social media stars they are being co-opted in a foreign influence operation. During the July briefing with reporters, a senior intelligence official said “it’s a complicated answer” that is “obviously case specific” and which requires consultation from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, or DNI, which oversees the U.S. intelligence community. 

On Friday, a DNI official said that so-called “defensive briefings” to warn Americans they are a target of foreign influence had picked up steam.  (This story has been corrected to say that Tenet no longer manages a YouTube account, in paragraph 9)