President Trump’s stupid and neglected conspiracy theories are only negative for the long run of American democracy; they are also a lucrative gift for disinformation traders based in Eastern Europe.
A new report through Alethea Group in collaboration with the Global Disinformation Index as a component of the Joint Election Protection Project shows how fake conservative news sites running through Macedonian spammers benefit from the same types of conspiracy theories that have invaded Trump’s campaign wallet. five hundred million dollars. The report also shows how “alternative” social media platforms like Gab and Talk have a refuge, not only for misinformation, but also for those looking to benefit from it.
“False accusations of voter fraud are gold mines for financially motivated disinformation providers because they get the highest volumes of clicks and traffic,” Cindy Otis said of the report to the Daily Beast. “We have noticed that domestic and foreign actors are pushing for incorrect information to increase their presence on more marginal social media platforms, such as Talk and Gab, where they see their goals increasingly moving and where they will not face any moderation.
Alethea researchers discovered a network of at least thirteen Internet sites that are passing through conservative US news organizations. But it’s not the first time Operating from Macedonia. Since then, many sites have been inactive or have suspended their social media accounts on larger platforms like Facebook and Instagram, but two remain active and have pointed out the generation of false stories about voter fraud.
USA News Advice, which began publication in October, began as a site primarily aimed at fitness articles containing spam that produced unreliable juice cleanses and recommendations on organic foods. about Hunter Biden and, after the election, the allegations of voter fraud.
Like several Macedonian clickbait sites, plagiarism supplies most of its content. Site operators scam conservative media outlets like The Daily Wire, whose articles are among the most read “news” content on Facebook, according to the CrowdTangle research tool. But USA News Advice also snatles content from other fake and fraudulent data sites, adding Independent Minute, a medium known in the past as a hyperpartisan clickbait site through RiskIQ researchers.
It turns out that it generates original content, but with limited English professing. One article, “Democratic activists (also known as enriched peoples) infiltrate the voter count,” seized a viral video of an election employee in Georgia to falsely claim that the votes for Trump were The article, which asks readers to “look conscientiously at video what this guy does with the paper, he can’t do it,” turns out to have caught the attention of British far-right specialist Katie Hopkins. , who posted the video next to the serious English name of the accompanying article on his Instagram account
The site, registered through Aleksandar Tasevski from Kumanovo, Macedonia, has social media accounts on Instagram, Talk, and Gab, storing conservative memes and links to articles.
A Facebook account for him has already been deleted at some point in the last two months.
Faced with the crackdown on incorrect election information on primary platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, Macedonian fake news sites have turned to conservative social media platforms such as Gab and Parler, which are adopting a more laissez-faire technique for conspiracy and incorrect information. . A Macedonian clickbait site, Resist the Mainstream, grew so much in Talk that at one point, one in seven Talk users was a follower of the platform.
“These platforms are filled not only with others fleeing what they understand as censorship, but also for-profit scammers, troll farms, and misinformation providers,” Otis said.
Most of the sites known through Alethea researchers seem to run through Teodor Mircevski, a Macedonian pillar of fake news in the past known through The Daily Beast as connected to a number of Internet sites that were made to be affiliates of a local television network, and are connected to it via email , web registration and management information, the sites have introduced false viral stories about parents who violently come from paedophiles and have become involved in conspiracy theories about allegations of sexual assault through Biden’s former assistant, Tara Reade, opposed to the president. Mircevski began his career in conservative clickbait in the 2016 election and has since been one of Macedonia’s most important fake identifiable news entrepreneurs.
Four of Mircevski’s sites, ConservativeFighters (. org and Arraycom), Donald Trump News and ConservativeMedia, remained active during the election and focused on spreading misinformation from voters.
While foreign spammers still benefit from the MAGA movement, President Trump remains the largest source and largest beneficiary of election plots. The Crusade of Trump and GOP organizations have raised more than $1 billion since the election, as the president and his crusade have tried to overthrow him and cast doubt on his legitimacy.
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