Some very serious facts are emerging regarding Putin’s Russia’s attempts to influence the upcoming US electionswhich also pass through the world of video games. The investigations of the American Department of Justice have uncovered the so-called Good Old USA Project, a large-scale action program designed to have a government more friendly to Russian business, favoring the election of Donald TrumpThe project, called Doppelganger and entrusted to a team that worked on it full time, involved specific minorities, the inhabitants of the so-called “swing states”, where the vote is uncertain and, precisely, online gamers.
The backbone
The tools used for propaganda were several fake websites, designed to imitate mainstream media and spread disinformation, artificial intelligence and a vast network of fake social media accounts, used to disseminate pro-Russian propaganda everywhere. It has emerged that Russia also benefited from the support of well-known influencerswhose names have not yet been released.
The plan was for the campaign to reach a variety of audiences, including the aforementioned swing state residents, American Jews, “US citizens of Hispanic descent,” the “American gaming community,” Reddit users, and image boards, like 4chan“. The document describes this category of players as the “backbone of right-wing tendencies on the US internet.” In recent months, Donald Trump’s campaign has embraced many of the most influential figures within these communities, who are massively supporting him.
The pro-Trump narrative involved creating content such as videos with subjects like “music, humor, and beautiful girls” and creating social groups designed for that purpose. Reddit was the social network of choice because it was “free from democratic censorship.”
As mentioned, one of the key aspects of Doppelganger was to involve as many influencers as possible, gathering information about them and then convincing them to work for the cause. We’re talking about influencers who express conservative valueswho would like to end the war in Ukraine and who would push for the US and Russia to improve their relations. In short, characters already ready to spread pro-Russian propaganda.
It seems that the list of influencers involved is really massive, given that we are talking about more than 2,800 peopleincluding many international influencers, therefore possibly also Italian. In fact, US influencers would only be 20% of the total.
In addition to the list of influencers who are in favor of the Russian campaign, there is also a list of 1,900 influencers who are considered anti-Russian, and therefore considered harmful to the plan. “We need influencers! Lots of them, everywhere. We are ready to spoil and pamper them.” Ilya Gambashidze, the head of the plan, wrote in a message, making his goals perfectly clear.
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