The U.S. intelligence community on Monday said Russia is responsible for recent videos shared on social media that sought to denigrate Vice President Kamala Harris, including one that tried to implicate her in a hit-and-run accident.
Spy agencies also assess that Russian influence actors were responsible for altering videos of the vice president's speeches — behavior consistent with Moscow’s broader efforts to boost former President Donald Trump’s candidacy and disparage Harris and the Democratic Party, an official with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said during a press briefing.
Russia is increasingly turning to American social media stars to covertly influence voters ahead of the 2024 presidential election, according to U.S. officials and recently unveiled criminal charges.
“What we see them doing is relying on witting and unwitting Americans to seed, promote and add credibility to narratives that serve these foreign actors’ interest,” a senior intelligence official said in a briefing on Friday. “These foreign countries typically calculate that Americans are more likely to believe other Americans’ views.”
This report delves into Doppelgänger information operations conducted by Russian actors, focusing on their activities from early June to late-July 2024. Our investigation was motivated by the unexpected snap general election in France, prompting a closer look at Doppelgänger activities during this period.
While recent activities have been described since1,2, our first dive into the information operations topic offers a complementary threat-intelligence analysts’ perspective on the matter, brings additional knowledge on associated infrastructure, tactics and motivation in Europe and the United States.
How Doppelganger, one of the biggest Russian disinformation campaigns, is using EU companies to keep spreading its propaganda – despite sanctions.
#Fact-checking
Olga Loiek, a University of Pennsylvania student was looking for an audience on the internet – just not like this.
Shortly after launching a YouTube channel in November last year, Loiek, a 21-year-old from Ukraine, found her image had been taken and spun through artificial intelligence to create alter egos on Chinese social media platforms.
Her digital doppelgangers - like "Natasha" - claimed to be Russian women fluent in Chinese who wanted to thank China for its support of Russia and make a little money on the side selling products such as Russian candies.
One of Russia's top security officials called on Thursday for Russians to mobilise to inflict "maximum harm" on Western societies and infrastructure as payback for increasingly tough sanctions being imposed on Moscow by the U.S. and its allies.