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
manages a YouTube channel and various other social media profiles, where it
publishes 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.