The Kremlin is turning to unwitting Americans and commercial public relations firms in Russia to spread disinformation about the U.S. presidential race, top intelligence officials said Monday, detailing the latest efforts by America’s adversaries to shape public opinion ahead of the 2024 election.

The warning comes after a tumultuous few weeks in U.S. politics that have forced Russia, Iran and China to revise some of the details of their propaganda playbook. What hasn’t changed, intelligence officials said, is the determination of these nations to seed the internet with false and incendiary claims about American democracy to undermine faith in the election.

“The American public should know that content that they read online — especially on social media — could be foreign propaganda, even if it appears to be coming from fellow Americans or originating in the United States,” said an official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity under rules set by the office of the director.

Russia continues to pose the greatest threat when it comes to election disinformation, authorities said, while there are indications that Iran is expanding its efforts and China is proceeding cautiously when it comes to 2024.

    • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
      627·
      4 months ago

      I’m mostly talking about people like @JimSamtanko@lemm.ee , who outted themselves in this thread, and others that I’ll not list because they haven’t engaged. But also, yes, its very very very reasonable to think that Russia would focus and define its propaganda to specific people in positions of power such that the outcomes are in Russia’s interest.

      Propaganda isn’t flyers falling from the sky; its a carefully cultivated resources at a major media outlet advocating that “We can’t replace Joe Biden as candidate”. Its creating a media landscape around one specific individual such that you control the reality they think they live in.

      I (or you or anyone else) can literally buy ads that follow a person around the internet where ever they go to purchase a specific product. Why couldn’t I do the same around a media narrative? If you were a state-level campaign working to engineer specific outcomes, don’t you think you would take advantage of tools like that?

      • JimSamtanko@lemm.ee
        233·
        4 months ago

        Hey bud, if you’re going to summon me by name- it’s best you have you shit straight. Because I bring receipts.

        First off… I’m going to ask you to explain exactly what you think I’ve outed myself about, and I want full details and no strawman bullshit where you change the topic to some nonsense that never happened. Put up or shut up.

        Second-

        Bro, you have a reputation here. You whined and cried every anti-Biden propaganda you could come up with. And when one didn’t work, you adopted another. I noticed you stopped with the genocide bullshit right after his speech. And I’m not the only one. Imagine that… we were right how you didn’t give a shit all along.

        It was all about removing Biden.

        And you’re damn right I was right behind Biden all the way. I don’t hide that shit. Being anti-fascist is something I’m very proud of. I’d STILL be behind him if he didn’t drop out because protecting democracy from Trump is the only America option most of us have- and that is because we’re not entitled arrogant little kids running around pretending at politics like our choices don’t matter to other fucking people.

        I was behind Biden 100% and I’m now beind Harris 100%. Because that is what adults do. We know that ae’re playing with live ammo bud.

        This isn’t a game. Lives are at stake.

        So you can puff out your chest and stomp around pretending to be a hero for mouthing off to people that know WAY more about this than you do- but in the end, it’s clear no one is taking you seriously here.

        Your comment history and mod logs prove you’re little more than a troll- and that’s not me saying it- the mod logs do.