🚨#Russia's🇷🇺Internet Research Agency trolls posed as a fake media group–Newsroom for American and European Based Citizens (#NAEBC): a #Hungary-based “free and independent” outlet that pushes "conservative and right-wing voices."
#TrumpRussia @thespybrief
reuters.com/article/usa-el…
The #Hungary-based “free and independent" #NAEBC's website warns its readers: “Don’t get yourself fooled.”
Yet the #Russian🇷🇺troll **website’s own name** is a pun on a Russian expletive meaning to deceive or “screw over.”💥
#NAEBC's strategy: energize Trump supporters, depress support for Biden, and target both sides with divisive and polarizing messages.
"The accounts failed to attract any significant following...but got more traction on Gab and Parler."🙄
#TrumpRussia
#NAEBC focused on US politics & current events, republishing articles from conservative media & paying Americans to write about politically-sensitive issues. A network of accounts posing as editors & journalists then promoted the articles on right-wing social media sites.
A senior US security official said #Russian🇷🇺operatives were increasingly recruiting “unwitting Americans” to write articles. Reuters identified 3 writers in the US who contributed articles—2 of whom are "established authors who had written for a number of right-wing outlets."🧐
One of the writers, who asked not to be named publicly, said they had been working for NAEBC for the last month with "no knowledge" of its #Russian🇷🇺backing.
Writers were paid from $50 to $75 per an article, and money was sent promptly via online transfer.🧐
#NAEBC gave detailed instructions on how to frame articles.
An email from "Nora Berka" asked 1 writer for a story about calls to defund the US police: “Here we should mention that a lot of democrats support de-funding the police. And in case if they win 2020, it can happen.”🙄
Kremlin🇷🇺spokesman Dmitry Peskov claimed he did not know anything about #NAEBC or a similarly fake left-wing news site, Peace Data. “The #Russian state does not engage in such activity."🤣
This LIE comes from the same people who helped throw the 2016 election to Trump.🤬
Bottom line: #Russia's🇷🇺attacks on our democracy are getting more and more sophisticated, using actual (seemingly unwitting) Americans as cutouts.
Russia is targeting *both* right- and left-wing political groups, with the goal of DIVIDING US.🤬
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