Anti-Biden Disinformation Decried by Disinfo Experts, Social-Media Giants

A Trump-tied newspaper floats dubious accusations. Will others bite?

The Post story also omits key details, including that Giuliani has acknowledged working closely with Andriy Derkach, a Kremlin ally sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury for pushing disinformation intended to sway the 2020 election. It omits that the gas company in question was recently attacked by the same Russian, state-backed hacking team that stole emails from the Democratic National Committee in 2016. It does not mention recent intelligence community assessments that Russia is still attempting to influence the U.S. presidential election to the benefit of Donald Trump.

Disinformation watchers on Wednesday were quick to point out the deeply problematic nature of the story and urge journalists and news outlets to be careful in how they covered it.

Marc Ambinder, a security expert in residence with the University of Southern California Annenberg School, pointed out that that chain of events had all the hallmarks of a Russian disinformation operation.

- mysterious circumstances (which gin up conspiratorial thinking)
- deniability (witnesses can’t remember key facts about the chain of custody of the information)
- no metadata (can’t verify emails)
- a gun ... with no smoke (would be too obvious)
- a willing media vector
12:04 PM · Oct 14, 2020

https://www.defenseone.com/technology/2020/10/anti-biden-disinformation-decried-disinformation-experts-social-media-giants/169270/

Its too early to believe all this. Especially the one about Hunter giving half to Joe. That's too far fetched to be real. Giuliani is not above passing on Russian disinformation.