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NEW: People connected to Russia’s Internet Research Agency have run a fake news outlet to target right-wing voters with inflammatory political messaging ahead of the 2020 election, two sources familiar with an FBI probe into the activity tell @Reuters https://reut.rs/33j5CgD
The outlet was called the Newsroom for American and European Based Citizens (NAEBC) and operated much the same way as it’s left-wing counterpart, Peace Data, which was exposed by Facebook and Twitter last month https://reut.rs/3bmTFci
NAEBC mainly focused on US politics, republishing articles from conservative media and paying real Americans to write about politically-sensitive issues. Topics covered included attacks on @JoeBiden, criticism of Black Lives Matter and praise for Kyle Rittenhouse
A network of fake personas, some of which used GAN-generated pictures (surprise!), then pushed the articles on social media. They barely got any following but did get some traction on Gab and Parler
This was one of their most popular posts
This was one of their most popular posts
As with Peace Data, one of their few successes appears to have been tricking “unwitting Americans” into writing articles for the site. Emails seen by Reuters show NAEBC paid $50-75 per an article and sent money via PayPal.
And they gave explicit and detailed instructions for the stories they commissioned
But as @RidT said just yesterday, you can't help but wonder if these people want (or even plan) to get caught https://twitter.com/RidT/status/1311475149716234241
Peace Data was a play on the Russian word пиздато (pizdato) meaning "fucking amazing"
And NAEBC previously branded itself as NAEBCa - the Russian word наёбка (naebka) comes from the verb "to fuck someone over"
And NAEBC previously branded itself as NAEBCa - the Russian word наёбка (naebka) comes from the verb "to fuck someone over"
I believe the increased public awareness that comes from exposing such operations is broadly a good thing. But no one should want to amplify the threat unduly.
Outgoing head of MI6 Alex Younger in the FT this week:
Outgoing head of MI6 Alex Younger in the FT this week:
