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☆ A pro-Trump influencer says a Russian agent paid him $100 to post a fake voter fraud video. It wasn’t the first time
▼ + stars: | 2024-11-04 | by ( Isabel Rosales | Paul P. Murphy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —An American social media influencer said he was paid $100 by a pro-Kremlin propagandist to post a fake video of Haitian immigrants claiming to vote in the US presidential election. After speaking with CNN, AlphaFox deleted the post, which at the time had generated more than 2.6 million views. Deleted video’s message lives onAlphaFox said he was remorseful for sharing Russian disinformation, and adamant that he was the one who was tricked. “I never wanted to misinform anyone.”AlphaFox believes himself to be just “the guy who shared” a disinformation video. “Real people have become important vehicles of Russian disinformation.

Persons: influencer, Trump, Donald Trump, Kamala Harris, ”, Simeon Boikov, podcaster, Boikov, Darren Linvill, ” Linvill, ” Boikov, AlphaFox, ” AlphaFox, “, X AlphaFox, Harris, Doug Emhoff, Sean “ Diddy ” Combs, Brad Raffensperger, ” Raffensperger Organizations: CNN, Kremlin, State, Russian, Media, Clemson University, FBI, Australian Foreign Ministries, Homeland Security, AlphaFox Locations: American, Russian, Massachusetts, Georgia, Boikov, Russia, Australia, Sydney, AlphaFox, AlphaFox78

☆ Viral video of ripped-up Pennsylvania ballots is fake and Russian-made, intelligence agencies say
▼ + stars: | 2024-10-26 | by ( Zoë Richards | Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Brandy-Zadrozny-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Russian actors "manufactured and amplified" a recent viral video that falsely showed a person tearing up ballots in Pennsylvania, the FBI and two other federal agencies said Friday. In the video, a person is seen destroying what are purported to be filled-out ballots in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. “The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office will not tolerate any voter suppression, intimidation, or fraud,” the statement added. Darren Linvill, co-director at Clemson University’s Media Forensics Hub, attributed the viral video to the Russian disinformation production team known to researchers as Storm-1516. The video’s quality and the use of actors who appear to have West African accents to pose as Black Americans were characteristic of the Russian campaign, Linvill said.

Persons: ”, “, Darren Linvill, Linvill’s, Linvill, ” Linvill, CISA, Donald Trump, Sen, JD Vance, Ohio, Joe Biden's Organizations: FBI, National Intelligence, Infrastructure Security Agency, stoke, Attorney’s, Yardley Borough Police Department, Russian Embassy, Clemson University’s, Storm, NBC, United Nations Locations: Pennsylvania, U.S, Russia, Bucks County , Pennsylvania, Bucks County, Yardley, Russian, Washington, Iran, China

An army of political propaganda accounts powered by artificial intelligence posed as real people on X to argue in favor of Republican candidates and causes, according to a research report out of Clemson University. The network identified by the Clemson researchers included at least 686 identified X accounts that have posted more than 130,000 times since January. Many of the accounts were removed from X after NBC News emailed the platform for comment. In Arizona’s Republican congressional primary, the accounts supported Blake Masters over Abraham Hamadeh. A search on X for that hashtag shows only one other tweet, from 2018, has used it.

Persons: Donald Trump’s, Pepe, Darren Linvill, They’re, Frank LaRose, Bernie Moreno, Blake Masters, Abraham Hamadeh, didn’t, —, Sen, Sherrod Brown, ” OpenAI, Kai, Cheng Yang, ”, Yang, ChatGPT, Elon Musk, Musk, ” Linvill, Larry Norden, “ There’s, ” Norden, “, Norden, Clemson’s, Eric Hartford, Hartford Organizations: Republican, Clemson University, Clemson, NBC, NBC News, Democratic, Clemson’s Media, “, Ohio Republican Senate, Trump, GOP, Hamadeh, Northeastern University, Ohio Republican, Center for Justice, United, Social Locations: American, Montana , Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Ohio, ”, China, Taiwan, Iran, Russia, Ukraine, United States, U.S

☆ Russian disinformation peddlers are targeting Harris-Walz campaign with fake videos, Microsoft says
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-17 | by ( Kevin Collier | Https | Media-Cldnry.S-Nbcnews.Com Image Upload Newscms Brandy-Zadrozny-Circle-Byline-Template.Jpg | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Russian disinformation peddlers are producing videos targeting the Harris-Walz campaign with false and disparaging claims, Microsoft said Tuesday. At least three Russian disinformation actors have been working to denigrate the Harris-Walz campaign, Microsoft said. Some of the disinformation comes in the form of two videos that have been disseminated since late August, Microsoft said. NBC News has viewed an upload of that video posted to X, which Microsoft confirmed is the alleged Russian disinformation. The report comes after the U.S. accused the Kremlin of running a multifaceted disinformation campaign to boost former President Donald Trump and disparage Harris.

Persons: Harris, Walz, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs didn’t, Darren Linvill, ” Linvill, Kamala Harris, Linvill, ”, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Trump, Vladimir Putin Organizations: Microsoft, Justice Department, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NBC News, Media, Clemson, Democratic, Russia’s Internet Research Agency, Tenet Media, National Intelligence, Intelligence, Biden, Ukraine, FBI, The Justice Department, Trump Locations: San Francisco, Russia, Ukraine, Iran, U.S, China

In mid-December 2005, back when U.S.-Russia relations remained on relatively friendly terms, a new media channel called Russia Today began broadcasting English-language news. “It’s a very good start,” Russian President Vladimir Putin was quoted as saying of Russia Today at the time. In subsequent years, Russia Today would rebrand to RT, expand into other languages, and even open a studio in Washington, D.C. in 2010. The Tennessee company was not named in the indictment but appears to be Tenet Media, according to a review by NBC News of details included in the indictment. Instead of shuttering, the state media organization found alternate ways to distribute content, including a social media bot farm, the DOJ said in a July news release outlining its efforts to remove the content.

Persons: “, Vladimir Putin, Russia wasn’t, Margarita Simonyan, Elena Mikhaylovna Afanasyeva, Kostiantyn Kalashnikov, Melanie Smith, We’ve, there’s, ” Smith, ”, Eduard Grigoriann, Lauren Southern, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Darren Linvill, ” Linvill, ” Simonyan Organizations: Russia Today, RIA, U.S, Institute for Strategic, NBC News, Kremlin, RT, Government, Tenet Media, NBC, YouTube, Justice Department, WikiLeaks, RT America, DirecTV, DOJ, Clemson University’s, Espanol Locations: Russia, RIA Novosti, Washington ,, U.S, Europe, Tennessee, London, Ukraine, America

CNN —The Chinese government has built up the world’s largest known online disinformation operation and is using it to harass US residents, politicians, and businesses—at times threatening its targets with violence, a CNN review of court documents and public disclosures by social media companies has found. Victims face a barrage of tens of thousands of social media posts that call them traitors, dogs, and racist and homophobic slurs. While tech and social media companies have shut down thousands of accounts targeting these victims, they’re outpaced by a slew of new accounts emerging virtually every day. As part of a mission “to manipulate public perceptions of [China], the Group uses its misattributed social media accounts to threaten, harass and intimidate specific victims,” the complaint states. In the past, the Spamouflage network mostly focused on issues domestically relevant to China.

Persons: –, Xi Jinping, Biden, Mike Gallagher, Chen Pokong, ”, Chen, “, Spamouflage’s, Liu Pengyu, ” Liu, Jiayang, Darren Linvill, hasn’t, Fan, Communist Party playbook, Mandiant, Nancy Pelosi, ” Ben Nimmo, George Floyd’s, Ben Nimmo, Lindsay Gorman, Gorman, ” Linvill, Linvill, Spamouflage, Jiajun Qiu, Qiu, ” Qiu Organizations: CNN, US State Department, FBI, Communist Party, Meta, Google, ”, CCP, US Department of Justice, Department, DOJ, China’s Ministry of Public Security, Group, New Yorker, telltale, Media, Clemson University, Capitol, Department of Homeland Security, Marshall Fund’s Alliance, Securing Democracy, YouTube Locations: United States, Beijing, San Francisco, China “, New York, China, New York City, America, Washington, Hong Kong, US, Texas, Virginia, Manassas , Virginia

☆ How a real Trump supporter unknowingly became the face of a fake liberal Twitter account
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( Jaide Timm-Garcia | Isabel Rosales | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —Erica Marsh quickly rose to fame earlier this year as a viral left-wing voice on social media. But the face behind the account is real— and belongs to a Republican Trump voter from Florida. Ballesteros first heard about Erica Marsh in March, when her friends brought it to her attention. Mystery remains behind fake accountIt’s unclear exactly who, or what, was behind the Erica Marsh account, or for what purpose it was created. For Ballesteros, even though the Erica Marsh account is no longer active, she worries about the impact it could have on her personal life, particularly if someone recognizes her in public.

Persons: Erica Marsh, Matt Gaetz, “, Erica Marsh’s, Courtney Ballesteros, Ballesteros, ”, Darren Linvill, Hany Farid, Farid, ” Ballesteros, isn’t, CNN she’s, Donald Trump, Biden’s, Linvill, ” Linvill, ” Farid, “ We’re, we’ve, that’s Organizations: CNN, Twitter, Republican Trump, Republican, Media, Clemson University, UC Berkeley, Obama Foundation . Representatives, Russian Internet Research Agency, Facebook Locations: Florida, Ruskin , Florida, Tampa, spurts, United States

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