Exclusive: Russian operation masqueraded as right-wing news site to target U.S. voters

LONDON (Reuters) - The Russian group accused of meddling in the 2016 U.S. election has posed as an independent news outlet to target right-wing social media users ahead of this year’s vote, two people familiar with an FBI probe into the activity told Reuters.

The latest operation centred around a pseudo media organisation called the Newsroom for American and European Based Citizens (NAEBC), which was run by people associated with the St. Petersburg-based Internet Research Agency, the sources said.

U.S. prosecutors say the agency played a key role in Russian efforts to sway the 2016 election in favour of President Donald Trump, and Facebook and Twitter exposed a fake left-wing media outlet in September which they said was run by people connected to the organisation.

NAEBC and its activity, which have not been previously reported, now show that Russian attempts to influence U.S. voters ahead of the 2020 election have targeted both sides of the political divide.

The website predominantly focused on U.S. politics and current events, republishing articles from conservative media and paying real Americans to write about politically-sensitive issues. A network of accounts posing as editors and journalists then promoted the articles on social media sites favoured by right-wing users.

I've never heard of it either so I did a search and found this image on the home page right now for an article titled; Ethnocidal ‘Critical Race Theory’ Is Upon Us Like White On Rice

Kinda comical, slightly scary

While it seems clear that Russian efforts are directed at playing on the divisions within the U.S. polity, to nourish the divisions, it is also clear to any one that looks at all the data, that the Russian efforts amount to no more than a fly on an elephant, with the elephant being (a) the political, social and news outreach of the two major parties, (b) the campaigns of the two parties presidential nominees, (c) the campaigns of the all the hundreds of PACS, (d) the clear divisive activity of all the U.S. media, (e) the billions of individual social media efforts by millions of individuals Americans who never see anything the Russians are doing. The sum of all all Americans are doing so dwarfs the Russian media and social media efforts that it is silly to call the Russian efforts material factors in any election, no matter what are the Russian intentions.

BUT, where the Russian efforts WERE effective was in using Billary, Inc. the DNC, the Obama administration and the Democratic party, in turning their hatred of Trump and efforts against him into a vehicle for Russian disinformation. What did Putin achieve? Was it electing Trump? No. It was the success of contributing to the Dims keeping the Trump administration embroiled in “impeachment” hoaxes for two years.

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