Americans Paid to Spread Pro-Russian Content
In early September, two Russian state media employees were indicted for paying a US company to create pro-Russian content.
The charges revealed the Kremlin's latest tactic in a growing information war — paying Americans to do the work.
According to prosecutors, the two employees of RT, a Russian media outlet formerly known as Russia Today, funneled $10 million to a Tennessee media company.
That company then paid several influencers for their content — in one case, $400,000 a month.
China and Iran have their own campaigns to use social media to shape American opinions, but Russia remains the chief threat, intelligence officials say.
Officials and analysts say Russia's campaigns are designed to cut off American assistance to Ukraine, where Russia has been bogged down in conflict for over two years.
A secondary goal, officials have said, is to increase political polarization and reduce American confidence in democracy.
When successful, Russia can get Americans to spread its talking points for free. When an Ohio train derailment caused massive environmental damage last year, Russian voices tried to steer the debate with anti-government posts that were quickly reposted by Americans.
Two of the content creators paid by RT — Tim Pool and Benny Johnson — said on social media that they had no knowledge that the Tennessee company, identified as Tenet Media, had a relationship with RT. They said if the allegations are true, they are victims.
Pool also posted that no one told him what to say, calling Russian President Vladimir Putin "a scumbag."
However, he also has a long history of voicing pro-Russian, anti-Ukrainian views.
In one podcast he said: "Ukraine is the greatest threat to this nation and to the world. We should rescind all funding and financing, pull out all military support, and we should apologize to Russia."
Russian officials, meanwhile, have repeatedly bragged about their ability to shape American views.
"We create many sources of information that are not tied to us," RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan recently said on a Russian talk show. "While the CIA tries to figure out that they're tied to us, they already have an enormous audience. This is how we chase each other. It's actually fun."
Vladimir Putin giving Margarita Simonyan an award for her service in May 2019.
