Election misinformation, bought and paid for

Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 07/09/2024 (389 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Follow the money. Every time.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Justice Department released an indictment against two Russian employees of RT, a Russian state-funded media outlet, for money laundering and violating the Foreign Agents Registration Act.

But what’s really interesting is what they have been charged with doing.

The U.S. Justice Department says the two were involved in paying US$10 million to a U.S. right wing media outlet to spread and produce material to advance Russia’s interests and influence voters in the U.S. election to vote for Russia’s candidate of choice.

The indictment doesn’t name the media company, calling it “U.S. Company-1,” but details in the indictment making it clear that it’s Tenet Media, based in Tennessee — the company is alleged to have received 90 per cent of its total revenues from Russian sources, using intermediaries in Turkey, Mauritius and the United Arab Emirates.

In a release Wednesday, the U.S. Justice Department said, “Since publicly launching in or about November 2023, U.S. Company-1 has posted nearly 2,000 videos that have garnered more than 16 million views on YouTube alone. Many of the videos posted by U.S. Company-1 contain commentary on events and issues in the U.S., such as immigration, inflation and other topics related to domestic and foreign policy. While the views expressed in the videos are not uniform, most are directed to the publicly stated goals of the Government of Russia and RT — to amplify domestic divisions in the United States.”

The other thing the videos clearly seek to do is to boost the fortunes of the political party seen to most align with Russia’s interests, and to try to convince the American public to stop funding the Ukrainian war effort. The only party that fits that particular bill is the Republicans under presidential candidate Donald Trump.

What does it mean, all these miles away from Washington, D.C., and Tennessee? Well, that things aren’t always what they seem, and that “He who pays the piper calls the tune.”

That’s why following the money is so very important: exploiting social media, even if you’re paying millions of dollars to do it, is a relatively cheap method of propaganda. You can use a nation’s own citizens to destroy it from the inside — make the material you want and use a willing, paid stalking horse to plant its seeds of divisiveness, fear and bigotry far and wide.

You can rest assured that if a ploy like this has worked effectively even once, it’s probably being used in many other places, including in other countries Russia would like to destabilize — or that it would like to have stop opposing Russia’s territorial and political goals.

Perhaps, even, like our own.

The fallout from the RT indictments will stretch on for weeks and will generate speculation, finger-pointing and likely even more Kremlin misinformation.

And while we’re talking about that misinformation…

After the indictments were announced, and in a move almost worthy of low comedy, Russian President Vladamir Putin said Thursday his Russian government would be endorsing Kamala Harris for president because she was U.S. President Joe Biden’s choice.

Putin also said Trump had launched “so many restrictions and sanctions against Russia” during his first presidency, adding Harris “laughs so contagiously and expressively, it shows she’s doing well.” If nothing else, it shows Putin can ham-handedly echo Trump’s own talking points about his own “toughness” and Harris’s laugh.

It will be interesting to see who pushes that Kremlin line the hardest in the coming weeks.

And then, follow the money.