What do the elections in France and the upcoming elections in the United States have in common?
They have been the result of a concerted Russian campaign of disinformation.
France has been the target of Russian bots and fake news sites for two years, but efforts to spread fake news intensified last fall. antibot4navalny, a collective that analyzes the habits of Russian robots, found that of 4,400 messages published since mid-November, most were aimed at France and Germany. A multitude of fake news sites gave the impression of being aimed at the French public, some of which were designed to look a lot like valid news sites or organizations, adding one that claimed Macron would pay voters a hundred euros to vote for him and connected to an almost identical site. fake site. to the authentic crusade page of his party.
Many fake articles and bot posts on social media aimed to cut French for Ukraine. Much of the curtain denigrated Macron, a staunch and partisan best friend of Ukraine, while praising the National Republican Party’s best friend, whose leader, Le Pen, has fostered ties with Putin.
According to the BBC, which has tracked a bunch of fake news sites and articles, Russian disinformation campaigns are targeting American voters. Some of the fake stories went viral and were even shared through U. S. lawmakers, such as an article in the Moscow-based “Houston” newspaper. Post” claiming that the FBI had illegally raided Trump’s apartment and some others in the “DC Weekly” that claimed Ukrainian officials had bought yachts with aid money from the U. S. military.
Like the fake news spread in France, this data comes from Internet sites or social media accounts designed to look like genuine news outlets. The BBC investigation found that several of the fake news sites used calls similar to those of existing media outlets or used calls from newspapers that have long since stopped trading. On social media in particular, fake accounts attempt to gain credibility by using the same or similar name as a verified account, or by sharing doctored photos that appear to come from a valid source.
To make them more authentic, the fake articles could include video or audio clips from the intended “sources,” but the videos shown are notoriously AI-generated deepfauxs. Sites could also associate fake signatures with images of other genuine people or links to others. fake news to reinforce their claims.
Sometimes misinformation sites take a genuine story and replace key points or ask artificial intelligence to rewrite it to give it express perspective. But fake articles are revealed: published articles come with AI triggers in the text like “Please rewrite this article from a conservative position. ” In translated articles, you can find footnotes that say things like “This highlights the cynical tone toward the US government, NATO, and US politicians. It also emphasizes the belief that Republicans, Trump, DeSantis, Russia and RFK Jr are positive figures, while Democrats, Biden, the war in Ukraine, big business and big pharma are portrayed negatively. ”
With technological advancements, it can be increasingly difficult to distinguish fake news from genuine news at first glance, especially if we only see headlines or screenshots in percentages on social media. And unfortunately, the tsunami of fake news sites and social media bots is drowning out genuine news. news agencies. The most productive way to combat this scourge is to turn to news corporations that you know are legitimate: subscribe to their newspapers or newsletters, interact with their publications, and share their stories.
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