Russian disinformation network targets politicians ahead of EU elections

A growing Russian disinformation network is targeting European Union countries ahead of EU Parliament elections scheduled for June, investigators say, largely focused on spreading false claims about the war in Ukraine and political leaders who criticize Russia.

O disinformation network, which operates under the name “Pravda” and disguises itself as a news website, is now targeting all 27 EU countries with your content. Researchers at the European Digital Media Observatory say the network’s use of artificial intelligence to produce large volumes of content provides insight into Russia’s disinformation tactics ahead of the US presidential election.

Darren Linvill, a professor at Clemson University in South Carolina who specializes in research into misinformation on social media, told CBS News that Russian disinformation tactics have evolved. “The Russians are masters of narrative laundering, the process of putting out a false or misleading story and then integrating it into online conversations in such a way that the original source is obscured,” he said.

“They will discredit institutions, undermine the legitimacy of the democratic process, and attack moderate political candidates, both Democratic and Republican, in an attempt to further drive extremism,” he said.

A CBS News analysis found that fake news sites have published dozens of false claims in the last two weeks alone. Among them, that the US will soon intensify the conflict in Ukraine; the US, UK and German governments were responsible for attempted assassination of the Prime Minister of Slovakia; and EU officials are intensifying a witch hunt amid searches for Russian interference in EU offices.

Professional media organizations tend to link news articles to the journalists who disseminated the information in the name of transparency. However, these manufactured items do not do this. Instead, they link Telegram accounts such as Rybar, a channel founded by Russian military blogger Mikhail Zvinchuk, who previously worked for the Russian Ministry of Defense. Rybar quickly grew to over 1.2 million subscribers on its pro-Russian stance about the conflict in Ukraine.

Thanos Sitistas, chief researcher for the observatory’s Pravda network, told CBS News that the Russian disinformation network may be testing which narratives have an impact. “The tools they use offer a huge amount of automation,” he wrote in an email. “Most of the time, they take content from certain Telegram accounts and reproduce it as is.”

“They look for weaknesses and strengths and will eventually adjust accordingly,” he said. “They also map the local information landscape and can adapt their future strategies, checking which narratives have an impact and which don’t.”

Articles on Pravda EN and its sister sites in several European languages ​​follow the same structure of information taken from pro-Russian Telegram accounts.

Observatory researchers underlined a sharp increase in new Pravda sites in March, citing evidence that the network has expanded to at least 28 countries, including 19 EU member states. It all started with five websites launched in 2023 targeting German, English, French, Spanish and Polish.

The French government found in their own investigation, all sites had a common IP address hosted on a server tracked in Russia, as well as the same external links and sections.

Recent analysis from the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center he said Russia “remains the most committed and capable threat” to the 2024 US presidential election election, with new forms of influence and interference efforts, including the use of generative AI.

Observatory researchers said that sites in the Pravda network show “a high level of automation” as content is published 24/7 and in high volumes. A CBS News analysis found that about 70 articles were published in one hour on Pravda EN, with the majority focusing on the conflict in Ukraine.

US agencies have increasingly warned about the use of generative AI by foreign actors to try to influence the 2024 elections.

Advances in generative AI are lowering the barrier to entry for U.S. adversaries, including Russia, to spread disinformation, FBI Director Christopher Wray said. he said in February while making their tactics “more realistic and harder to detect.”