Russia is relying on American social media stars to secretly influence voters, US officials say

“We are focusing on these tactics because the American public should know that content they read online, particularly on social media, could be foreign propaganda, even if it appears to be coming from fellow Americans,” another senior U.S. intelligence official said in a July briefing with reporters on election security. “In short, foreign influencers are getting better and better at hiding their hand and using Americans for their own ends.”

On Wednesday, the Justice Department announced that it had filed charges against two former employees of the Russian media outlet Russia Today (RT), alleging that they secretly funded an American political media outlet.

The indictment describes an alleged plot in which the Russians transferred about $10 million to two media entrepreneurs, Lauren Chen and Liam Donovan, who then paid American conservative influencers to create videos and social media posts. Some of the commenters had shared anti-Ukrainian content at different times, which was consistent with the initiative's priorities. Chen and Donovan did not respond to a request for comment.

While the indictment does not name the accused media company, Reuters found that it is a Tennessee-based company called Tenet Media, which publicly describes itself as a home for “fearless voices.” Tenet did not respond to repeated requests for comment. In the past, the company employed several prominent social media personalities, including podcaster Tim Pool and former journalist Benny Johnson.

The indictment states that Chen and Donovan knew they were accepting money from the Russian agents, but the commentators they paid apparently knew nothing about the arrangement.

Tenet operates a YouTube channel and several other social media accounts where it posts videos and audio recordings of its contributors. According to court documents, Tenet's founders instructed an unnamed commentator to make false claims to his online viewers that Ukraine, not ISIS, was responsible for a deadly terrorist attack in Moscow in April.

Pool and Johnson issued statements late Wednesday acknowledging the charges against Tenet. Pool said, “At no time did anyone other than me have full editorial control over the show” and “I, as well as the other personalities and commentators, were deceived and are victims.” Johnson wrote in a similar statement that he was “troubled by the allegations in today's indictment, which make clear that I and other influencers were victims of this alleged scheme.”

According to experts, the system fits a historical trend.

“Paying journalists or front media, for example, was an established process for laundering propaganda during the Cold War. This is kind of a digital update to that,” said Renee DiResta, a digital disinformation analyst. “The fact that they're using influencers instead of journalists is interesting – an indication of where the influential voices are in the community.”

In a related but separate document released Wednesday, the Justice Department also uncovered another Russian operation called Doppelgänger, which posed as real Western news outlets and spread false information about U.S. political candidates and the war in Ukraine. This operation was allegedly orchestrated by the Russian government through a group of Russian marketing agencies called Social Design Agency, Structura National Technology and ANO Dialog.

As evidence, prosecutors cited internal presentations from Russian marketing agencies explaining their practices and tools. A key element of the program, according to the documents, was identifying Western influencers who shared similar views and finding ways to work with them.

A presentation notes that they are “working with influential representatives of traditional values ​​who are committed to ending the war in Ukraine and peaceful relations between the US and Russia and are ready to participate in promoting the project narratives. They include actors, politicians, experts from various fields, media representatives, activists of social organizations and clergy, etc.”

According to a second presentation, Russian companies are actively monitoring a total of 2,800 influencers, 600 of whom are based in the United States, including radio hosts, bloggers and comedians.

“Russian influence actors have made significant efforts during this election cycle to build and leverage networks of U.S. and other Western figures to create and spread pro-Russian narratives,” the senior intelligence official said. “These figures post content on social media, write for various websites with overt and covert ties to the Russian government, and conduct other media activities.”

It is not clear how or when the FBI warns American social media stars that they are being involved in a foreign influence operation. During the July press briefing, a senior intelligence official said “it's a complicated response” that “obviously depends on the specific case” and requires consultation with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), which oversees the U.S. intelligence community.

On Friday, a DNI official said so-called “defensive briefings” to warn Americans that they are the target of foreign influence have gained momentum.