Russia Focusing On Social Media Stars To Influence Voters

Photo: Reuters/Megan Varner

WASHIGNTON, DC (REUTERS) – Russia is increasingly turning to American social media stars to covertly influence voters ahead of the 2024 presidential election, according to US 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. “These foreign countries typically calculate that Americans are more likely to believe other Americans’ views.”

The approach is widely viewed by American security agencies as one of Russia’s preferred tactics this cycle to make their foreign psychological operations appear more authentic.

Broadly, these missions typically seek to anger Americans, highlight societal divisions and emphasize partisan talking points while questioning the government’s effectiveness and role in global security, experts say.

“We’re focusing on these tactics because the American public should know that content that they read online, especially on social media, could be foreign propaganda, even if it appears to be coming from fellow Americans,” another senior intelligence official said in a July briefing with reporters on election security.

Last week the Justice Department revealed criminal charges against two former employees of Russian media outlet Russia Today, or RT, who they say were covertly funding an American political media company.

The indictment outlines an alleged scheme where the Russians sent about $10 million to two media business owners, Lauren Chen and Liam Donovan, who then paid American conservative influencers to create videos and social media posts.

While the indictment does not name the accused media outlet, Reuters found it is a Tennessee-based firm named Tenet Media, which publicly describes itself as the home for “fearless voices.”

Tenet managed a YouTube channel and various other social media profiles, where it published videos and audio recordings from its contributors.