Researchers Say Russians Manipulating Alt-Right Social Media Also

While some folks say that traditional social media like Twitter and Facebook are being manipulated by foreign adversaries, they may have company in the far right social media space.

Stanford University’s Internet Observatory and Internet traffic mapper Graphika say the Ruskies have invaded the alt-right social media space also. This is not a big surprise. They are another audience. It is cheap to infiltrate and some of the visitors may be more inclined to believe Russian propaganda than the general public.

The researchers say the Russians are using normal techniques – false personas and narratives about voter fraud, among others.

They said they saw this traffic on Gab, Gettr, Parler and Truth Social.

The new addition to the target list above is former President Trump’s Truth Social.

Graphika says they have high confidence that the group behind the campaigns is Russia’s Internet Research Agency under the disguise of the Newsroom for American and European Based Citizens. This is confirmed by U.S. law enforcement.

The fake posts are coordinated with articles on Election Truth, which researchers at Recorded Truth are “almost certain” is linked to Russian information operations.

The posts are also linked to the Foundation to Battle Injustice, which, itself, says is funded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, who is also linked to the Russian Wagner mercenary army, currently fighting for Russia in Ukraine.

Graphika says that these posts were able to maintain persistence on these alt-right sites “due to an apparent lack of enforcement”. These Russian actors “have established a degree of persistence unavailable on most mainstream platforms and are able to conduct their operations with relative ease“.

Although it “largely operated in an echo chamber of highly-dense overlapping follower relationships on fringe platforms” there were “moments of significant ‘break out’ when content created by the actors was amplified organically to large audiences on mainstream social media platforms.”

Among these incidents was a fake Kid Rock post from Gettr (later redesigned as a “fan page” that was shared on Instagram by Donald Trump Jr). The post played off concerns and conspiracy theories around climate change and the COVID-19 pandemic by stating: “Domestic oil is the new ivermectin. You can’t have it because it would resolve the crisis they need you to go through.”

Credit: The Record

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