cross-posted from: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/16162157

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government on Wednesday indicted two Russian citizens and seized more than 30 internet domains related to a campaign to influence the American election.

But the trove of information filed in court by the FBI also revealed another bombshell: A Russian operation to manipulate German, French, Italian and U.K. politicians, businesspeople, journalists and other influencers.

The goal of the Kremlin’s campaign in Europe was to sow division, discredit America and undermine support for Ukraine, according to a host of Russian documents, memos and minutes from Russian psychological warfare meetings.

[…]

One memo from Russia’s “Social Design Agency” described a plan to target people via real posts and comments on social media to circumvent social media companies’ bot filters.

The Social Design Agency acts under the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s deputy chief of staff Sergey Kiriyenko, according to the FBI court affidavit.

The Russian document says the goal of the campaign is to “evoke in the audience rational (such as, ‘really, why do WE need to help Ukraine?’) and emotional (such as, ‘Americans are such scumbags!’) reactions.”

The psy-ops also relied on so-called doppelgänger domains to spread fake articles and content made to look like they came from Western media outlets.

    • Kyrgizion@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Yeah lol they may as well broadcast their shit in cyrillic, it couldn’t be any more obvious to anyone with half a working brain.

      • PugJesus@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        it couldn’t be any more obvious to anyone with half a working brain.

        So we’re dealing with a serious percentage of the population fooled, then.

        • Clinicallydepressedpoochie@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Not the US population. They would never be taken by an obvious lier with zero scruples to speak of. They are way too disciplined to for that.

          I remember when my dad use to always try to get me to look at this site that listed all of the lies Obama ever told. Watching his unwavering support for trump I try now to understand what that was all about. He obviously doesn’t care about politicians lying. Outside of the racism I think it was just an attempt to radicalize me knowing he just wanted Republicans in power. If there was legitimate moral concern there I wish I could tap into it now.

          • InvertedParallax@lemm.ee
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            2 months ago

            He was trying to justify his lifelong beliefs by going all in.

            Otherwise he might have been wrong, which was clearly impossible.

        • rayyy@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          we’re dealing with a serious percentage of the population fooled, then.

          You have no idea …