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In a dwindling field of journalism in the US, a handful of websites have emerged in recent weeks with names that suggest a focus on domestic news: DC Weekly, New York News Daily, Chicago Chronicle and a new sister publication, Miami Chronicle.
In fact, they are not local news organizations at all. Researchers and government officials say they are Russian creations, intended to mimic real news organizations in order to intersperse Kremlin propaganda with stories about crime, politics and culture.
While Russia has long been looking for ways to influence public discussion in the United States, fake news organizations – at least five so far – are taking a technological leap forward in their efforts to find new platforms to deceive American readers. represent. The sites may be the foundation of an online network designed to spread disinformation ahead of the US presidential election in November, researchers and officials said.
Patrick Warren, co-director of Clemson University’s Media Forensics Hub, which has exposed Russia’s disinformation efforts, said advances in artificial intelligence and other digital tools “have made it even easier to do this and the content they create.” “Making him even more of a target.” ,
The Miami Chronicle’s website first appeared on February 26. Its tagline falsely claims to deliver “Florida news since 1937.”
Among the few true reports, the site last week published a story about a “leaked audio recording” of US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland speaking about US support for Russia’s embattled opposition following the death of a Russian dissident. Changes were discussed. Alexey A. Navalny. The recording is completely fake, according to administration officials, who would speak only anonymously to discuss intelligence matters.
Experts and officials say the campaign appears to involve the remnants of a media empire once controlled by Yevgeny V. Prigozhin, a former aide to President Vladimir V. Putin, whose Troll Factory, the Internet Research Agency, Interfered in the 2016 presidential election. Donald J. Trump and Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Mr Prigozhin died in a plane crash outside Moscow in August after leading a brief military coup against Russia’s military, but the continuation of his campaigns underlines the importance the Kremlin attaches to its information battles around the world. Does it. It is not clear who actually took command.
“Putin would be a complete fool to let the network break up,” said Darren Linville, Mr. Warren’s partner at Clemson. “He needs the Prigozhin network more than ever.”
Clemson researchers revealed the Russian connections behind the DC Weekly website in a report in December. Following their revelations, Russian stories began appearing on Clear Story News, another site created in October. Since then, new outlets have emerged.
The websites of the Chicago Chronicle and the New York News Daily, named apparently to highlight the city’s prestigious daily news tabloid, were both created on Jan. 18, according to the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which keeps track of domains. Were.
All outlets use the same WordPress software to create sites and as a result, their designs are similar.
The outlets have logos and names reminiscent of a bygone era of American journalism, an effort to create an appearance of authenticity. The Chicago Chronicle operated from 1895 to 1907 before closing for a reason that will be very familiar to struggling newspapers today: It was not profitable.
They are also regularly updated with major breaking news, giving a sense of timeliness at first glance. An article about the Supreme Court’s decision regarding Mr. Trump’s eligibility to remain on the primary ballot in Colorado appeared on the Miami Chronicle’s site within hours of the decision.
In other ways, the websites are poorly constructed, even incomplete in some parts. For example, the Miami Chronicle’s “About” page is filled with Lorem Ipsum, Latin-based dummy text. The file names of some images on the site are from the original Russian. (Neither site posts working contact information.)
The purpose, Mr. Linville said, is not to fool any discerning reader into digging deeper into the website, let alone subscribing. Instead the goal is to provide an aura of credibility to posts spreading disinformation on social media.
The effort follows a pattern the Kremlin has used before: laundering claims that first appear online through lesser news organizations. Those reports then spread online and appeared in even more news organizations, including Russia’s state news agencies and television networks.
“The page is meant to look realistic enough to fool an ordinary reader into thinking they are reading a genuine, US-branded article,” Mr Linville said.
According to the Clemson study, DC Weekly published several Kremlin narratives starting in August. These include a false claim that the wife of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky bought more than $1.1 million worth of jewelry at a Cartier store in New York during her visit to the United Nations in September.
The site claims to have a staff of 17 journalists, but this appears to be a fabrication. The biography of the author of that story, identified as Jessica Devlin, uses a photo of Judy Batallion, author of a best-selling book about Jewish women who fought the Nazis, as a profile picture. Ms. Batallion said she had never heard of the site or the author until the fact checkers reached out to her.
Other articles appearing on the sites appear to be lifted from actual news organizations, including Reuters and Fox News, or English-language news agencies of Russian state media like RT. Mr Linville and Mr Warren wrote in the study that some stories inadvertently included instructions or responses from one of OpenAI’s chatbots.
The New York News Daily recently published a story about alleged US plans to interfere in Russia’s election this month, the winner of which, Mr Putin, is a foregone conclusion. It was spread on social media by people with longstanding ties to the Kremlin’s state media apparatus.
Another article last week appeared to come from a fictional character on X. The New York News Daily posted an article about a thread about Mr. Zelensky announcing a $115 million Hollywood blockbuster. The user’s name on X was Brian Wilson and he was described as an associate producer at Paramount Pictures.
The account has posted only 85 times on X, most of them reposts about movies in two days in February. A week later, the user suddenly announced a deal to produce a biopic of Mr. Zelensky — “The Price of Victory” — in a series of posts. This was followed by two more films last week, which featured actual videos of actors Chuck Norris and Dolph Lundgren wishing them success in the film.
The videos appear to originate from celebrity greeting app Cameo, which was previously revealed in a Russian campaign that Microsoft disclosed in December.
A spokesperson for Paramount Pictures said that no one named Brian Wilson works at the studio. A spokesperson for Cameo said Monday that the company was not aware of the video, but added, “As a general rule, when posts abusing Cameo-sourced content are brought to our attention, we Request to remove him from the issue forum.” Later that day, both videos were blocked on the X account for violating intellectual property rights. X later suspended the account.
Posts about the film spread widely on Telegram. Many users cited the real New York Daily News as the source and said it highlighted the misuse of Western financial aid in Ukraine’s war against Russia. Clint Watts, general manager of Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center, said the narrative was also amplified by outlets previously associated with Russian intelligence agencies, including Newsfront and Politnavigator.
Articles typically receive hundreds of posts on a variety of platforms, including X, Facebook, and Telegram, as well as Reddit, Gab, and Truth Social, although exact reach is difficult to measure. Overall, they can theoretically reach thousands, even millions, of readers.
“This is absolutely the prelude to the kind of interference we will see in this election cycle,” Mr. Linville said. “It’s cheap, highly targeted and clearly effective.”
Jean Noonan Delmundo Contributed to the reporting.
