LONDON (Reuters) – The Russian organization accused of meddling in the 2016 US election has gone through an independent media outlet to attack right-wing social media users before this year’s vote, two other people familiar with an FBI investigation into the activity told Reuters. .
The most recent operation aimed at a pseudo-media organization called the Press Room for American and European Citizens (NAEBC), which runs through others related to the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency, resources said.
U. S. prosecutors say the firm played a key role in Russia’s efforts to influence the 2016 election in favor of President Donald Trump, and Facebook and Twitter revealed in September a false left-wing media outlet that they said went through others linked to the organization. .
NAEBC and its previously reported activities now show that Russia’s attempts to influence the U. S. electorate before the 2020 election have targeted both sides of the political divide.
They focused primarily on U. S. politics and existing events, republishing conservative media articles and paying genuine Americans to write on politically sensitive issues. A network of accounts that were put through publishers and hounds promotionated articles on social networking sites favored by right-wing users.
Issues through NAEBC ranged from attacks on Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to complaints about the Black Lives Matter motion and compliments for Wisconsin shooter Kyle Rittenhouse.
Russia has denied accusations of electoral interference. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said he knew nothing about NAEBC or the fake left-wing news site, Peace Data. “The Russian state has no interaction in such an activity,” he said.
The FBI declined to comment.
When asked by email about NAEBC’s ties to Russia, a user who identified herself as Nora Berka, assistant editor, said: “I have no idea what NAEBC has to do with this. ” The user refused to speak on the phone or video call.
After Reuters contacted NAEBC for comments, social media accounts on behalf of Nora Berka and other NAEBC removed all references to the online page from their profiles and deleted some of their previous posts.
“Screw”
NAEBC presents itself as a “free and independent” medium in Hungary with the project of selling conservative and right-wing voices. Its homepage presents a warning to its readers: “Don’t be fooled. “
The website’s own name, however, is a word game with a Russian oath for cheating or “fucking. “
Ben Nimmo, head of research at social media analytics company Graphika, analyzed after being alerted to activity through Reuters and said NAEBC and Peace Data showed that Russian-influenced operations had evolved since 2016.
“But the overall strategy turns out unchanged: energize the Trump ers, decrease for Biden, and target both sides with department messages and polarization,” he said.
NAEBC has been active since the end of June and has built a small network of people on Twitter and LinkedIn, some of whom used computer-generated photographs of other non-existent people, to request articles from fans and indefinite journalists, according to Graphika’s analysis. .
Nimmo said the accounts had attracted significant admirers, but that they had had more traction on Gab and Talk, two social media platforms that like right-wing users for their lax technique for content moderation.
Paul Rockwell, director of accepting true and security on LinkedIn, said his company had suspended 3 NAEBC accounts in the past. “This is a component of our normal paints to actively look for symptoms of state-sponsored activity on the platform and take quick action. opposed to bad actors, ” he said.
Facebook said it had stopped an attempt to create an NAEBC account and blocked sharing on its platforms.
Twitter declined to comment. Prior to being contacted through Reuters, the company had already suspended NAEBC’s main account and an account in Nora Berka’s name, as well as blocking NAEBC’s access as a “potentially dangerous” link.
A spokeswoman for Parler said the company was unanswered by NAEBC and had not discussed the activity with the police and that Gab did not respond to a request for comment.
DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS
A senior U. S. security official, who spoke under anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to the press, said Russian agents were recruiting “involuntary Americans” to write articles and publish them online.
Reuters has met 3 U. S. -based publishers. Who have written articles for NAEBC; two of them were shown authors who had written for several right-wing media outlets, while the third was an amateur journalist.
One of the writers, who asked to be publicly identified, said they had been running for NAEBC for a month without the wisdom of their Russian support.
Emails noticed through the Reuters screen that the online page functioned as its left-wing counterpart, Peace Data. The writers received between $50 and $75 according to the article, and the cash was temporarily sent via an online transfer.
NAEBC staff also gave detailed instructions on the items they ordered and how they were written.
Last August, a user who sent an email like Nora Berka requested an article on requests for U. S. police to be canceled following national protests opposed to a series of high-profile black men’s murders through white officers.
NAEBC asked the United States to ask “how U. S. citizens are intended to hide without a police officer” and, in particular, to mention the accumulation of gun purchases, as well as incidents of violence and shootings.
“Here we will have to mention that many Democrats de-finance the police,” said the user who wrote as Berka. “And if they win 2020, it can happen. “
(Additional information through Elizabeth Culliford in Birmingham, England and Christopher Bing in Washington; edited through Chris Sanders and Edward Tobin)
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