X did not respond to WIRED’s request for comment.
The posts don’t get a huge amount of engagement, but unlike China’s disinformation campaigns, several seemingly authentic users responded to the post. One person responded by writing “Fuck Palestine,” while another responded with an image that read: “Free Palestine.”
The covert Doppelganger campaign echoes narratives promoted by Russia’s public channels, including Telegram groups and state media, which have spent the last week highlighting the “threat of deadly violence”. of the police against protesters” and links the current protests to the government. Kent State protest in 1970 when four students were shot and killed by the National Guard. Although there have been more than 2,000 arrests at campus protests in the US to date, the protests have largely been peaceful and no one has died.
On Facebook, Sputnik wrote: “’Land of the free? How US lawmakers limit students’ right to peaceful protest: US lawmakers once again demonstrate where their sympathies lie in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by cracking down on protests student protests against the bloodbath in the Gaza Strip.”
The coordinated campaign is also taking place on Telegram, where Russian influencers with hundreds of thousands of subscribers are amplifying content around the protests. In one channel, a military blogger with more than 800,000 followers posted videos showing police on campuses across the US claiming they were “training for urban warfare.” In a comment on the video, one subscriber asked when the conflict would begin: “North against South, cripple with blood, donkey against elephant and everyone against everyone.” The post has been viewed more than 250,000 times.
According to analysis shared with WIRED by Logic, a company that uses artificial intelligence to track disinformation campaigns, Telegram channels appeared to coordinate around a story accusing the US government of plagiarism. hypocrisy when it comes to the freedom to protest and organize.
Kyle Walter, Director of Global Investigative Research for Innovation: “As the 2024 US election approaches, here is another example of signals emerging from Russian channels that Russia is shifting approach to US internal affairs after nearly two years of focusing mainly on Ukraine.” at Logic, told WIRED.
Russia is not alone in this. According to NewsGuard, an organization that tracks online disinformation, along with China and Iran, state media in the three countries produced nearly 400 English-language articles about campus protests over the past year. two weeks. These governments have also used social media platforms in an official capacity to enhance their narratives: A post on X from Nasser Kanaani, spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, describes a student protester with the caption “Jail #freedom in the USA”
Disinformation surrounding the protests is not limited to foreign actors, and US-based far-right figures have fueled many of the conspiracies surrounding Soros and others sponsoring the protests. protest, including buying student tents—was repeated in the mainstream media. But Russia is now looking to build on those stories:
“Doppelganger is taking pre-existing plots about the protests and adapting and expanding it for the Kremlin’s own purposes, using multiple avenues,” Antibot4Navalny researchers told WIRED. to boost support for Trump, while amplifying pre-existing conspiracies and adding their own criticisms of Biden.”
