Thread by @P_Kallioniemi

In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an American social media influencer, Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson). He’s best known for his plagiarism while working as a clickbait “journalist”, and for being paid by the Kremlin to spread anti-Ukraine and anti-Democratic narratives.

1/23

Benny graduated from the University of Iowa in 2009 with a degree in developmental psychology. His former high school buddy described him as the “smartest, most articulate kid in school,” and was disappointed to see him turn into a “cheating, low standard hack.”

2/23

After graduating, Benny dived directly into the world of outrage media. Benny’s first job was writing op-eds for far-right website Breitbart, from where he moved on to TheBlaze, a conservative media owned by Glenn Beck, and a spring board for many conservative influencers.

3/23

Between 2012 and 2014, Johnson worked as a staff writer for BuzzFeed. Remember the clickbait titles like “9 Reasons Why Ted Cruz is Actually the Zodiac Killer”? Benny boy mastered them, quickly gaining the nickname “BuzzFeed Benny”. But Ben was also both lazy and sloppy:...

4/23

In Jul 2014, it was reported that Benny had copy-pasted phrases “word for word” from other sites like Yahoo Answers, Wikipedia, and US News & World Report. He was subsequently fired, but was quickly hired as digital director by the National Review.

5/23

In 2015, he left NR to join another conservative media outlet, Independent Journal Review (IJR). He was reported as being verbally abusive, driving several colleagues away from the company. And yet again, he was caught plagiarizing and spreading conspiracy theories.

6/23

By 2019, after working for other various conservative “news” outlets, Benny found his ideological soulmate: Turning Point USA, where he became chief creative Officer and started producing viral videos targeting liberals, immigrants, education, and critical thinking.

7/23

In 2020, he was hosted by one of the biggest MAGA propaganda mills in the US, Newsmax TV. Newsmax is a channel that makes even Fox News seem liberal, and Washington Post described it as “a landing spot for cable news personalities in need of a new home”.

8/23

Benny is a co-founder of Arsenal Media, a media company that “makes Republicans go viral”. Basically, they produce outrage media for MAGA personalities like Don Jr. and Kari Lake, trying to keep them in focus on social and traditional media. Interestingly, Arsenal Media…

9/23

…seemed to be behind the promotion of Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Justice Amy Coney Barrett. Since then, the Trump administration and MAGA have abandoned her, referring to her as a DEI hire. In Apr 2025, Benny called her a “repulsive lizard” and a “sick witch”.

10/23

Benny’s Arsenal Media is probably one of the biggest reasons why many MAGA personalities go viral. As I’ve written before, because of companies like this, much of the content that goes viral on X is the result of paid manipulation — and not organic at all.

11/23

A 2022 Verge article exposed Benny’s company’s toxic environment and dubious practices, such as delayed payments, unethical behavior, and overworking and underpaid jobs. Johnson was described as “very abusive, very toxic, screaming at people,“ and ”making women cry".

12/23

And BuzzFeed Benny’s antics can only be described as unethical. As he has once said, “A hate click is just as valuable as a love click,” and this is evident from his shitty content. Almost every video of his contains conspiracy theories, disinformation and exaggerations.

13/23

Today, his most common sources are MAGA conspiracy theorists like pro-Kremlin propagandist Tucker Carlson, former QAnon follower Michael Flynn, anti-Ukraine MAGA influencer Mike Benz, and of course the Republican conspiracy theorist Marjorie Taylor Greene.

14/23

And Benny’s flexible attitude towards the truth can also be seen on the Community Notes leaderboard - today, he’s at spot #78 with 92 Community Notes on his posts. Naturally, almost all of his posts are filled with disinformation & exaggerations, it’s just hard to keep up.

15/23

And as I’ve said before: today, lying on social media is a viable business strategy and can even make you a millionaire. And this is where Benny “the king of clickbait” Johnson excels - with all social media platforms combined, he has over 10 million followers.

16/23

But being the greedy PoS he is, he wanted even MORE money. In Aug 2024, the US DoJ charged two Russian state media employees with secretly funneling $10 million to Tennessee company Tenet Media to produce political videos aimed at influencing the US in Russia’s favor.

17/23

Guess who was also involved? BuzzFeed Benny, of course. Tenet Media employed a group of right-wing grifters — including Tim Pool and Benny Johnson — who were paid exorbitant sums to produce anti-Ukraine and other polarizing content for social media.

18/23

According to the indictment, Benny was “happy to” cover a lie that the Moscow terror attack was possibly linked to Ukraine & the US, instead of ISIS. Even most Russians laughed at this ridiculous propaganda attempt to blame the Ukrainians for the attack.

19/23

Benny claimed they were “victims in this alleged scheme” and - true to American tradition - threatened to sue anyone who said otherwise.

Not so funny anymore when the wild claims are about you, huh, Russian puppet? Also, what happened to free speech you so much loved?

20/23

Johnson is willing to use all dirty tricks for engagement. He’s often posting AI slop as real photos, making false claims about MAGA’s adversaries, or just making shit up. He has no problem promoting barbaric autocrats and illegal invasions if it makes him more money.

21/23

Recently, Johnson has started using fake Christianity as a safe exit from tricky situations. After getting pushback on his Andrew Tate interview, he quickly started pushing the ridiculous “Christ is King” rhetoric, even though he’s the antithesis of a real Christian.

22/23

To conclude, BuzzFeed Benny is what happens when plagiarism meets propaganda and gets a social media monetization deal. His journey from clickbait journalism to MAGA meme machine shows there’s always room in the grift economy for a guy who’s willing to lie about anything.

23/23

The 2nd edition of “Vatnik Soup — The Ultimate Guide to Russian Disinformation” is officially out!

You can order your copy here:

kleart.eu/webshop/p/vatn…