LONDON (Reuters) – When freelance journalist Laura Walters sent a 1,000-word article on Chinese political influence in New Zealand to her new nonprofit editors Peace Data, the reaction was vealed.
“I would like to express our deep appreciation for your work,” Alice Schultz, head of communications at Peace Data, wrote in a June 15 email noticed through Reuters.”It’s hard to know how totalitarian countries like China (or Russia) place their tactics to interfere with even the world’s most powerful democracies.”
But this email, from a user claiming to be Schultz, now turns out to have been a small component of such an attempt to interfere.
Following advice from the FBI, Facebook and Twitter said Tuesday that they have known Peace Data as the center of a Russian political influence crusade over the left-wing electorate in the United States, Britain and other countries.
It has been a success in deceiving and hiring freelance journalists to write articles on topics such as the U.S. presidential election, the coronavirus pandemic, and alleged Western war crimes, Facebook said.
Emails reviewed through Reuters and interviews with six sponsored journalists through the online page show how he approached writers on social media, were paid up to $250 according to the article, and encouraged to insert political angles into their work.
A user who knew herself as Bernadett Plaschil, Deputy Editor of Peace Data, told Reuters via email: “In fact, we have overcome those accusations and we have all denied them.”The user refused to speak by phone or video call.
News of Peace Data follows warnings that Russia is seeking to influence the final results of the November election after U.S. intelligence officials said it was a concerted effort to bring President Donald Trump’s campaign to life in 2016.
Russia has denied the allegations and the Kremlin did not respond without delay to a request for comment on Peace Data on Wednesday.
“I was referring to Russian interference in 2016 in the article I wrote,” He told Reuters Walters, a UK-based guy who was paid $250 to write peace data history in June.”I appreciate the irony right now.”
Peace Data’s “staff” contacted Walters and other authors online, in personal messages on Twitter or on the LinkedIn professional networking site.They filed between $100 and $250 for an article and temporarily paid through cash transfers on the web, the authors said.
All the writers contacted through Reuters, some of whom requested anonymity due to fear of professional repercussions, said they had no knowledge of the Russian of the site until Tuesday.
Some hounds said they saw the paintings as an easy way to make money from the coronavirus outbreak.Others were looming hounds looking for a break.” My first article published in a separate source of information,” one of the writers said when posting his paintings on social media in May.
While some of the authors stated that there is no transparent political address from Peace Data staff, others said the website’s editorial line made them uncomfortable.
“There is an exaggerated political angle in my stories,” said a journalist who wrote for Peace Data about Turkey and the case of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.
“It was temporarily no longer a press article as they continued to ask for more on political issues with a specific twist,” the user added.
Russia’s use of fake organizations to trap involuntary agents and activists as a component of its propaganda efforts dates back to the Soviet Union, said Thomas Rid, a professor at Johns Hopkins University and Active Measures, an e-book on political warfare.
While efforts to capture online influence operations have intensified since 2016, “going back by default to some of the old-school tactics turns out to be what they’re doing to stay hidden,” he said.
Walters said his reports show the importance of raising public awareness of efforts to deceive others online.
“The point of sophistication, the efforts that are faithful to itArray …they clearly think that he values it and that it’s going to be something,” he said.
“So I feel like if you can fool me with something like that, it might be,” he added.”But it’s probably the most attractive thing that’s going to happen to me for a long time.”
(This story corrects the spelling of paragraph thirteen to “win” from “ear”).
Additional reports via Raphael Satter in Washington; Editing through Chris Sanders and Edward Tobin
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