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Nevilledog

(53,354 posts) Mon Oct 21, 2024, 02:42 PM Oct 21

Russian Propaganda Unit Appears to Be Behind Spread of False Tim Walz Sexual Abuse Claims

https://www.wired.com/story/russian-propaganda-unit-storm-1516-false-tim-walz-sexual-abuse-claims/

No paywall link
https://archive.li/Ig3l8

A Russian-aligned propaganda network notorious for creating deepfake whistleblower videos appears to be behind a coordinated effort to promote wild and baseless claims that Minnesota governor and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz sexually assaulted one of his former students, according to several specialists tracking the disinformation campaign.

Experts believe that the campaign is tied to a network called Storm-1516, which has been linked to, among other things, a previous effort that falsely claimed vice president Kamala Harris perpetrated a hit-and-run in San Francisco in 2011. Storm-1516 has a long history of posting fake whistleblower videos, and often deepfake videos, to push Kremlin talking points to the West.

The propaganda unit’s work has successfully reached the highest levels of the Republican party, with vice presidential candidate JD Vance repeating at least one of their narratives. NBC reported this week that the group has pushed at least 50 false narratives in this manner since last fall, which comes amidst a broader Russian government effort to disrupt next month’s election with the aim of helping former president Donald Trump return to the White House.

Numerous figures in MAGA world boosted the Tim Walz assault claims, including Jack Posobiec, the Pizzagate promoter who is now a member of Trump’s campaign team, and Candace Owens, the popular right-wing podcaster. The claims went viral on X last week, when an anonymous account called Black Insurrectionist posted screenshots of emails from a purported victim. Other X users quickly debunked the claims, citing formatting errors in the images that suggested the emails were fake, but days later another conspiracist posted a video on X claiming he had spoken to one of Walz's supposed victims on the phone—without providing any proof. The video racked up millions of hits.

*snip*

11 replies

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Highlight:

Russian Propaganda Unit Appears to Be Behind Spread of False Tim Walz Sexual Abuse Claims (Original Post) Nevilledog Oct 21 OP

We're filling our our ballots today... Hekate Oct 21 #1

Definitely an attempt at election interference MagickMuffin Oct 21 #2

Not surprised. bif Oct 21 #3

"Russia, if you're listening..." Kid Berwyn Oct 21 #4

Let's hope Chris Hayes learned his lesson from last time. Behind the Aegis Oct 21 #5

All roads lead to Putin dalton99a Oct 21 #6

Never heard of Storm-1516 DFW Oct 21 #7

Not sure about the name, but here's more on the group from Clint Watts of the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center Pinback Oct 22 #11

To paraphrase someone blogslug Oct 21 #8

Does JD claim they could be true, reported by constituents? keithbvadu2 Oct 21 #9

I'm so sick of them infiltrating Dem4life1234 Oct 21 #10

Hekate

(95,577 posts)

1. We're filling our our ballots today...

Reply to Nevilledog (Original post)

Mon Oct 21, 2024, 02:46 PM

Oct 21

MagickMuffin

(17,257 posts)

2. Definitely an attempt at election interference

Reply to Nevilledog (Original post)

Mon Oct 21, 2024, 02:48 PM

Oct 21

Exhausting to what lengths they will go to and the party that supports them!

bif

(24,369 posts)

3. Not surprised.

Reply to MagickMuffin (Reply #2)

Mon Oct 21, 2024, 02:55 PM

Oct 21

Kid Berwyn

(18,610 posts)

4. "Russia, if you're listening..."

Reply to Nevilledog (Original post)

Mon Oct 21, 2024, 02:58 PM

Oct 21

Russia ramping up election-meddling efforts to help Trump beat Harris, intel officials say

by Josh Meyer
USA TODAY, September 6, 2024

Russia is ramping up its election interference efforts as Election Day nears, working specifically to help Donald Trump defeat Kamala Harris, using more sophisticated techniques including unwitting and even "witting" Americans – and trying to sway down-ballot elections as well, U.S. intelligence officials said Friday.

Senior officials heading the U.S. efforts to combat interference by Russia, Iran, China and other foreign adversaries provided those details in a 75-minute briefing with reporters.

The officials, speaking on background to discuss classified matters, said they could not comment on specifics including which Americans, if any, might be under criminal investigation, or what constitutes the kind of “witting” accomplices the Kremlin is using to help the former president defeat Vice President Harris, his Democratic rival.

The briefing marked one of the first times, if not the first, that U.S. intelligence officials have explicitly said Russian President Vladimir Putin was trying to get Trump elected in the current election cycle after allegedly backing him in 2016 and 2020.

Continues…

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2024/09/06/russia-election-interference-trump-harris/75103824007/

Behind the Aegis

(54,973 posts)

5. Let's hope Chris Hayes learned his lesson from last time.

Reply to Nevilledog (Original post)

Mon Oct 21, 2024, 03:48 PM

Oct 21

dalton99a

(85,190 posts)

6. All roads lead to Putin

Reply to Nevilledog (Original post)

Mon Oct 21, 2024, 03:50 PM

Oct 21

DFW

(56,974 posts)

7. Never heard of Storm-1516

Reply to Nevilledog (Original post)

Mon Oct 21, 2024, 04:36 PM

Oct 21

I wonder if that refers to the storm of 2015-2016 that nearly took down the USA? Now that Prigozhin's so-called "Internet Research Agency" at Savushkina Street 55 in St. Petersburg has been (supposedly, anyway) dismantled, I guess all that trouble-making talent had to go somewhere. Or maybe Units 74455 and 26165 of the GRU, who also engage in this kind of activity, are running this show?

Pinback

(12,921 posts)

11. Not sure about the name, but here's more on the group from Clint Watts of the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center

Reply to DFW (Reply #7)

Tue Oct 22, 2024, 06:41 AM

Oct 22

This is the same Clint Watts we know and love as a former FBI agent and cyberwarfare expert, renowned for his testimony before the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee testimony about Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections. Watts joined Microsoft when his consulting firm, Miburo Solutions, was acquired by the tech giant in 2022.

Russian election interference efforts focus on the Harris-Walz campaign
Sep 17, 2024 | Clint Watts - General Manager, Microsoft Threat Analysis Center
- https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2024/09/17/russian-election-interference-efforts-focus-on-the-harris-walz-campaign/

Russia and Iran have both undertaken cyber influence operations headed into the 2024 presidential election. In our last report, published on August 8, we detailed how Iranian cyber-enabled influence operations sought to undermine the Republican campaign through targeted hack-and-leak operations, covert social media personas, and imposter US news sites. In the past two months, Microsoft has observed a notable shift in Russian influence operations tactics reflecting the changing U.S. political environment. Specifically, we have observed Russia pivot towards targeting the Harris-Walz campaign, with actors disseminating fabricated videos designed to sow discord and spread disinformation about the new Democratic nominee Vice President Harris.

We discuss this activity in a new report by the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC) released today. This update follows other reports we have released around activity by actors advancing the geopolitical goals of Iran and China.

The shift to focusing on the Harris-Walz campaign reflects a strategic move by Russian actors aimed at exploiting any perceived vulnerabilities in the new candidates. Initially, Russian influence operations struggled to evolve their efforts following President Biden’s departure from the 2024 US presidential race. However, in late August and September, we observed two Russian actors MTAC tracks closely — previously reported as Storm-1516 and Storm-1679 — using videos designed to discredit Harris and stoke controversy around her campaign. Specifically:

Storm-1516, identified by news reports as a Kremlin-aligned troll farm, produced and disseminated two inauthentic videos, each generating millions of views. One video depicted an attack by alleged Harris supporters on a supposed Trump rally attendee, while another used an on-screen actor to fabricate false claims about Harris’s involvement in a hit-and-run accident. This second video was laundered through a website masquerading as a local San Francisco media outlet — which was only created days beforehand.

Storm-1679, a newer group reportedly aligned with the Kremlin, pivoted its focus from producing content about the 2024 Paris Olympic Games to publishing false videos discrediting Vice President Harris. One of the videos, which was shared on X shortly after it was published to Telegram, depicted a fake New York City billboard advancing false claims about Harris’ policies. The X post received more than 100,000 views in the four hours after it was published on Telegram.

- more at link: https://blogs.microsoft.com/on-the-issues/2024/09/17/russian-election-interference-efforts-focus-on-the-harris-walz-campaign/