Caroline Orr Bueno
NEW: #Russia has jumped into the #Texas border controversy and is now cheering on civil war in the US and promoting the right-wing border convoy. Even more interestingly, I found evidence that disinformation accounts associated with the notorious Internet Research Agency (Russia’s “troll factory”) may be being “reactivated” to promote a secessionist movement in Texas.
My latest:
https://weaponizedspaces.substack.com/p/russia-amplifies-calls-for-civil
Caroline Orr Bueno
In one particularly notable exchange, one of the accounts promoting the secessionist movement appealed to RT’s editor in chief to create a “resources” platform to “help the freedom-loving people of Texas.” In response, one account suggested sending “weapons” to Texas, to which the OP replied:
“Well, for now informational [weapons].”
Interestingly, RT’s editor in chief has previously referred to RT as an “information weapon.”
Caroline Orr Bueno
Even more interestingly, I searched on Twitter for a #Russian language phrase meaning “Free Texas” — a phrase that is associated with a secessionist movement and was used extensively & almost exclusively by Internet Research Agency accounts — and found more tweets using it in 3 days last week than in the past 3 years combined.
Caroline Orr Bueno
Propaganda outlets RT & Sputnik, which together function as one of the major instruments of Russia’s disinformation machine, have been amplifying both sides of the border conflict — a tactic straight out of the disinfo playbook — and promoting the right-wing border convoy in dozens of articles. This is significant because points of major focus on RT & Sputnik don’t just reflect the news cycle — they actually tell us something about Russia’s foreign policy priorities.
Caroline Orr Bueno
All of this is occurring just as Russian government and propaganda accounts have seen a boost in new followers and engagement on Twitter, thanks to changes made to the platform by Elon Musk — so any disinformation campaigns they launch will have greater reach.
https://weaponizedspaces.substack.com/p/kremlin-twitter-accounts-get-a-boost
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