The Kremlin is turning to unwitting Americans and commercial public relations firms in Russia to spread disinformation about the U.S. presidential race, top intelligence officials said Monday, detailing the latest efforts by America’s adversaries to shape public opinion ahead of the 2024 election.

The warning comes after a tumultuous few weeks in U.S. politics that have forced Russia, Iran and China to revise some of the details of their propaganda playbook. What hasn’t changed, intelligence officials said, is the determination of these nations to seed the internet with false and incendiary claims about American democracy to undermine faith in the election.

“The American public should know that content that they read online — especially on social media — could be foreign propaganda, even if it appears to be coming from fellow Americans or originating in the United States,” said an official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity under rules set by the office of the director.

Russia continues to pose the greatest threat when it comes to election disinformation, authorities said, while there are indications that Iran is expanding its efforts and China is proceeding cautiously when it comes to 2024.

  • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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    3 months ago

    It was unwitting Americans who for 8 months claimed that Joe Biden was the forgone conclusion, and that we all just needed to shut up and fall in line behind a guy who hadn’t polled above 45% for over 600 days.

    Some of yall sure af ain’t immune to propaganda, thats for god damn sure.

      • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        I’m mostly talking about people like @[email protected] , who outted themselves in this thread, and others that I’ll not list because they haven’t engaged. But also, yes, its very very very reasonable to think that Russia would focus and define its propaganda to specific people in positions of power such that the outcomes are in Russia’s interest.

        Propaganda isn’t flyers falling from the sky; its a carefully cultivated resources at a major media outlet advocating that “We can’t replace Joe Biden as candidate”. Its creating a media landscape around one specific individual such that you control the reality they think they live in.

        I (or you or anyone else) can literally buy ads that follow a person around the internet where ever they go to purchase a specific product. Why couldn’t I do the same around a media narrative? If you were a state-level campaign working to engineer specific outcomes, don’t you think you would take advantage of tools like that?

      • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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        3 months ago

        I mean who says it wasn’t Russia?

        Look at the disarray that the Trump campaign has fallen into now that they aren’t facing Biden. It was obviously to literally everyone outside of a bubble of idiots, the magnitude of the idiocy of the decision to both not have a real primary, and to unquestionably corronate a guy who has never been very popular as president. If you were advocating for that position, you were doing the job of Russia for them: to get the weakest possible candidate so their boy Trump could win again.

        And they almost did it. And it doesn’t mean that all of us we’re the target. These days, propaganda is going to be ultra-focused, narrow, and individually tailored, not to slobs like you or I, but to the Pelosis, and Schumers, and actual weilders of agency and power. If a corporate excec can get spear fished as easily as they seem to, why not a boomer ass politician? Or a newscaster or cable news talking head? Think about how Fox news during has become a channel with an audience of effectively one (djt).

        So when you see these things, just ask yourself, “who is benefiting”? It served Russias interests to have Joe as candidate.