A Russian Influence Campaign Is Exploiting College Campus Protests

[Nevilledog]

https://www.wired.com/story/russian-influence-campaign-exploiting-college-campus-protests/

A Russian influence campaign seems to be attempting to sow division in the US around the college campus protests.

As protests at universities across the country—and the responses to them by college authorities and law enforcement—continue to stoke division and anger, the Kremlin appears to have taken a page out of its foreign influence playbook, and used its disinformation infrastructure in collaboration with state-run media and Telegram influencers in an attempt to further divide American society.

Over the last week, a disinformation campaign operated by the Kremlin-aligned network Doppelganger amassed over 130,000 views on X, according to data shared exclusively with WIRED by Antibot4Navalny, a collective of anonymous Russian researchers who have spent years tracking the Russian influence operation.

Doppelganger is well known for using a network of inauthentic bot accounts to spread links to fake versions of real news websites. In the past, the network has impersonated websites as diverse as Le Monde in France and Fox News in the US. In recent months, the Doppelganger network has been used to stoke tensions in the US around the border crisis in Texas and boost false claims that celebrities like Taylor Swift were supporting Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

*snip*

[Walleye]

1. I suspect Russian involvement in a lot of the problems we're having

There is no reason to think they wouldn’t be involved. They’ve been doing it for 50 years at least

[CincyDem]

2. Shocked. Shocked I say. Gambling in this casino.

Amazing how many think these protests are random acts of humanitarianism.

[Fla Dem]

3. Of course it is, just like it's influencing Congress.

They're everywhere. Russia needs to attack the US from within. Cause turmoil and dissension which then results in nothing getting done.

I'd like to think the FBI and CIA are aware and doing everything possible to infiltrate these group, expose them and shut them down.

[Voltaire2]

4. Specifically they were promoting the theory that Soros and Rockefeller were funding the anti-genocide protests

This time around, targeting a US audience, Doppelganger has promoted a fake Washington Post article with the headline: “Soros pays $30/hour for anti-semitism.” The article claims, without evidence, that the protesters at US colleges “are financed by the Rockefeller and Soros foundations”—echoing claims about billionaire George Soros that have been boosted by mainstream media outlets and lawmakers in the US.

(wired source from op)

Their intent was to tar the protests as antisemitic.

echoing claims about billionaire George Soros that have been boosted by mainstream media outlets and lawmakers in the US.

So before you assume that the Russians were somehow funding the encampments, you might want to actually read and understand the article.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

6. lol, lmao

Disinformation around the protests has not been limited to foreign actors, and US-based far-right figures have boosted numerous conspiracies around Soros and others funding the protests, including buying students tents—which have been repeated in mainstream outlets. But Russia is now seeking to build on those narratives:

“Doppelganger is using pre-existing conspiracies about the protests and adopting and expanding it for Kremlin's own purposes, using multiple avenues for increasing support for Trump, while amplifying pre-existing and adding its own criticism of Biden,” the Antibot4Navalny researchers tell WIRED.

[Irish_Dem]

5. Duh.

Slow off the mark.

Putin started by helping Hamas attack Israel.
And has been actively using it to damage Biden and divide liberals.

[PeaceWave]

7. Once Putin's Russia collapses under the weight of corruption and the War in Ukraine...

Their military and intelligence agencies won't be able to pay their own salaries. It'll be similar to what happened after the USSR collapsed. At that point, we'll all be able to gauge the true extent of Russia's propaganda machine and meddling in U.S. and European affairs. Thankfully, that day is rapidly approaching. Russian GDP has been running negative for several years now.