Russian disinformation program allegedly targeted Pa. through fake news and social media posts

The United States has again accused Russian conspirators of interfering in the presidential election. Pennsylvania is among the alleged targets.

The U.S. Department of Justice said on Wednesday that an investigation by the FBI in Philadelphia has seized 32 internet domains linked to a Russian disinformation network.

Prosecutors said the network, known as “Doppelganger,” was run by a top adviser to Russian President Vladimir Putin and allegedly aimed to deceive Americans into believing that propaganda produced by the Kremlin (to benefit Russian interests and former President Donald Trump) was being produced by legitimate U.S. media outlets.

Part of the initiative, called The Good Old USA Project, aimed to target voters from specific demographic groups in the United States using fake news and doctored social media posts.

In a separate case in New York, the Justice Department also announced Wednesday that two employees of RT, a Russian state media organization, were charged with illegally paying a Tennessee company millions of dollars to spread disinformation via right-wing podcasters and commentators.

What is the connection between the Doppelganger case and Philadelphia and Pennsylvania?

Federal authorities in Philadelphia have been investigating the Doppelganger network and on Wednesday obtained a court order allowing them to seize 32 Internet domains that were linked to Russian disinformation activities.

Justice Department officials did not respond to requests for comment Thursday on why the FBI office in Philadelphia and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania were chosen to handle the investigation. But it is not unusual for the Justice Department to assign major investigations to local field offices for a variety of reasons, from geography to the availability of prosecutors or agents with expertise in a given district.

According to a statement filed in federal court, the Doppelganger network, as part of its activities, sought in particular to shape public opinion in key US states, including Pennsylvania.

“The conspirators targeted citizens of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania… in order to influence the electorate in this and other counties,” the statement reads.

» READ MORE: Philadelphia Feds Announce Refusal of Russian-Backed Propaganda Aimed at Influence US Presidential Election

What other groups have been the target of Doppelganger’s disinformation?

In addition to voters in key swing states, Doppelganger targeted other key demographic groups using social media groups, ads and influencers, according to the documents.

The alleged “Good Old USA Project” planning document included in the case file lists “target groups” including Latino Americans, Jewish Americans, residents of swing states, residents of conservative states (including Alabama, Kansas, Texas, Wyoming, and Louisiana), and “the American gamer community, Reddit users, and imageboard users like 4chan (the so-called “backbone” of right-wing trends in the American segment of the internet).”

The document describes the purpose of promoting “news groups” on Facebook, Reddit and X in Pennsylvania, Nevada, Georgia, Arizona, Michigan and Wisconsin, and also mentions YouTube as part of the strategy to influence target groups.

The group allegedly used targeted Facebook ads and artificial intelligence tools to spread negative information about American politicians. Several Meta accounts were registered with account names that look like real news organizations, such as CNN California, Sacramento Inside, California News and California BBC, according to the documents, and the group also allegedly created fake websites that looked like legitimate outlets, such as The Washington Post and Fox News, and with supposed signatures of real journalists who work for those organizations.

Who was involved in the RT program?

In a separate case also reported Wednesday, Attorney General Merrick Garland filed an indictment against two Russian RT employees — 31-year-old Kostya Kalashnikov, also known as Kostya, and 27-year-old Elena Afanasyeva. The duo are accused of transferring almost $10 million through a Tennessee-based online content company that posted English-language videos on TikTok, Instagram, X and YouTube supporting Kremlin interests.

Although the federal indictment, filed in Manhattan federal court, does not name the Tennessee-based company, a quote from the company’s YouTube page in the indictment, which calls it a “network of heterodox commentators focused on Western political and cultural issues,” suggests it refers to Tenet Media, The Washington Post reported.

Tenet was founded by conservative commentator Lauren Chen, who goes by the online pseudonym Roaming Millennial, host of Glenn Beck’s BlazeTV and works with Turning Point USA, and her husband Liam Donovan, The Post reported.

The US company has published nearly 2,000 videos that have racked up more than 16 million views on YouTube since its public launch in 2023. The English-language videos contain commentary on US issues, and “most of them are directed at the publicly stated goals of the Russian government and RT — to exacerbate internal divisions in the United States,” the Justice Department said.

The indictment alleges that Tenet backers were misled about how the company was funded, but the co-founders knew the money was coming from Russia.

According to the Justice Department, the American company never disclosed its ties to RT to viewers, and the company and its founders never registered as agents of a foreign power.

Kalashnikov, prosecutors say, posed as an outside editor, and Afanasyeva was introduced as a member of his alleged team. Afanasyeva allegedly posted and directed the posting of hundreds of videos under the pseudonyms Helena Shudra and Victoria Pesti.

Why does this matter in the context of the presidential race?

Pennsylvania is a key state that could decide who wins the presidential election.

Fake news and disinformation can be rampant on social media. More and more Americans are exposed to it and mistake it for real news reports.

As described in Wednesday’s court documents, one of the primary goals of both the Doppelganger network and the efforts of RT employees was to promote the candidacy of Donald Trump, who Russia believes is more sympathetic to its interests. President Donald Trump and Putin have publicly praised each other.

But in announcing the cases, the Justice Department was careful not to specifically identify Trump or the Republican Party by name as intended beneficiaries of Russia’s efforts. They did not accuse the former president or his campaign of any knowledge of or involvement in the disinformation plot.

Russia has tried to utilize the power of social media to influence the last two presidential elections. In 2016, Russia ran a sophisticated social media campaign to influence voters in Pennsylvania and elsewhere, including through fake news about voter fraud in the state and by organizing fake campaign rallies.

» READ MORE: ‘Paint Philadelphia Red’: How Russian Trolls Tried to Influence the 2016 Pennsylvania Vote

In addition, Putin was it was found to be approved attempts to assist Trump in the 2020 election, in a U.S. intelligence report that has been denied by Russia.

This week’s cases were among a series of actions the Biden administration announced this week to directly combat Russian attempts to interfere in the election. Those actions also included sanctions announced by the U.S. Treasury Department against key figures and economic entities.

Together, the efforts “starkly illustrate what the U.S. government and private sector partners have been warning about for months: the Russian government and its proxies are aggressively accelerating the Kremlin’s covert actions to spread false stories and amplify disinformation to the American public,” Matthew G. Olsen, head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, said in a statement Wednesday. “To Russia and any other government that seeks to foment discord in our society: Know that we will spare no effort and will use every tool at our disposal to disrupt and expose this malign activity and defend our democratic institutions.”

Staff writer Jeremy Roebuck contributed to this article.