Shannon VavraYesterday the Rachel Maddow Show featured my scoop on a Russian disinformation op: Fake news sites meant to look legitimate sharing allegedly "leaked" audio of 2 US officials discussing backing Russian opposition. Take watch, and read: https://www.thedailybeast.com/victoria-nuland-and-jim-obrien-impersonated-in-russian-influence-hoax
A few notes: The fake stories were ranked high in Google search before I reached out to Google about the disinformation, raising alarming questions about the future of content moderation and search algorithms when it comes to Russian disinformation leading into the 2024 election
This specific op is not an isolated incident. There are several fake news sites peddling pro-Russia narratives trying to undermine Western support for Ukraine. This new instance shows the overarching goal is to prop up Putin (in this case by undermining Russian opposition)
My reporting on this got YouTube/Google to nix the fake leaked audio. But there is more work to be done. Having action taken only when a reporter gets in touch *seems* to be a whack-a-mole approach that leaves gaps in our info ecosystem.
The big picture: This shows us a shift in Russia's disinformation playbook. We used to have trolls. Now it's news orgs meant to look real, content created using generative AI, focused on planting seeds of ideas that people will latch onto—even if it's sloppily executed disinfo.
Mike Cosgrave@shanvav @felwert Some folks will also remember “local” newspaper sites like the Lansing Sun as far back as 2016 which were certainly far right and possibly Russian backed. I didn’t bookmark the info back then, the best my Google-fu can find this morning is this https://eu.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/local/2019/10/21/lansing-sun-new-sites-michigan-local-news-outlets/3984689002/
Tane Piper ⁂@mikecosgrave @shanvav @felwert I can't remember the site exactly, but the other day my wife diving into the Kate Middleton story landed on a site - she started to wonder who ran it. All she could find was a website listing no publications and a private mail box in New York.
I wonder how many news sites out there are literally a small crew, an AI and an agenda?