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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWired: A Russian Influence Campaign Is Exploiting College Campus Protests (fake versions of real news websites)
A Russian Influence Campaign Is Exploiting College Campus ProtestsA Kremlin-aligned network called Doppelganger has used faked versions of real news sites to push both pro-Palestine and pro-Israel disinformation.
BY DAVID GILBERT
POLITICS
MAY 8, 2024 1:08 PM
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 countryand the responses to them by college authorities and law enforcementcontinue to stoke division and anger, the Kremlin appears to have taken a page from its foreign influence playbook, using its disinformation infrastructure in collaboration with state-run media and Telegram influencers in an effort to further divide American society.
Over the past 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 over the border crisis in Texas and boost false claims that celebrities like Taylor Swift were supporting Russias invasion of Ukraine.
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 foundationsechoing claims about billionaire George Soros that have been boosted by mainstream media outlets and lawmakers in the US. The site looks identical to the real Washington Post website, except for the fact that it uses a small variation of the real URL. This post was shared in eight distinct posts on X, which were shared by over 750 bot accounts multiple times, creating almost 6,000 retweets in total, according to the researchers. The Doppelganger network uses a combination of content bots, which post the links, and promotion bots, which then boost those original tweets.
As protests at universities across the countryand the responses to them by college authorities and law enforcementcontinue to stoke division and anger, the Kremlin appears to have taken a page from its foreign influence playbook, using its disinformation infrastructure in collaboration with state-run media and Telegram influencers in an effort to further divide American society.
Over the past 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 over the border crisis in Texas and boost false claims that celebrities like Taylor Swift were supporting Russias invasion of Ukraine.
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 foundationsechoing claims about billionaire George Soros that have been boosted by mainstream media outlets and lawmakers in the US. The site looks identical to the real Washington Post website, except for the fact that it uses a small variation of the real URL. This post was shared in eight distinct posts on X, which were shared by over 750 bot accounts multiple times, creating almost 6,000 retweets in total, according to the researchers. The Doppelganger network uses a combination of content bots, which post the links, and promotion bots, which then boost those original tweets.
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Wired: A Russian Influence Campaign Is Exploiting College Campus Protests (fake versions of real news websites) (Original Post)
emulatorloo
May 8
OP
Takket
(21,744 posts)1. nothing unexpected about that. Russia has been influencing our culture wars for the last decade
Qutzupalotl
(14,355 posts)2. So fake engagement on both sides,
not just on the issues, but in posting and reposting to sway people with the bandwagon effect.
Social media is a vulnerability. The defense is information like this.
LeftInTX
(25,886 posts)3. It's hard to check URL's on phones too. Young people are on phones