Disinformation updates: cocaine in White House, Hitler's Mercedes and others
Disinformation updates: cocaine in White House, Hitler's Mercedes and others
New campaigns by Storm-1516, fondfbr and others
Overview
We are observing an ongoing attempt to obscure origins of Storm-1516 and fondfbr campaigns by using new distribution channels. Additionally, we are seeing a continuous shift from Telegram to Twitter/X as a primary platform of distribution, which in part might be related to what seems to be a slow and silent crackdown on disinformation channels in Telegram.
Some of a newly involved channels:
Jamie McIntyre and associated media outlets, such as Australian National Review (ANR), NewZealand Times and CNBS News. For the most part, these outlets re-print materials from questionable sources, such as Russia Today or The Gateway Pundit
John Jackman and “DD Geopolitics”. DD Geopolitics is a well known pro-Russia account related to the “Donbass Devushka” personality [1] [2] [3]
X account AlertChannel, which seemingly is trying to mimic “official X alerts” by naming their account as “𝕏”, anything goes under Elon Musk leadership. Content wise, it’s mostly “breaking news” with what seems to be
Storm-1516 campaigns
(fake) Kamala Harris having a drug addiction and her relation to 2023 cocaine incident in White House
Story originates from a tweet by X account jkbolden85 on October 2. While the account itself is relatively old, this is the only currently existing original tweet posted by them.
It includes 4 videos, two of which depict a “whistleblower” person with a blurred-out face in a bar setting. If there are any beer lovers from Moscow reading this, who recognize this place, we would appreciate if you let us know where it was shot. Other two videos are montaged in a similar manner to the previous “investigation”-style campaigns by Storm-1516.
Among the first ones to repost the story were AlertChannel and DD_Geopolitics.
Later, the story was caught up by “Aussie Cossack” and Chay Bowes. AlertChannel also quoted DDG publication afterwards.
Notable publications in RU Telegram include:
https://t.me/theislandernews/22316 (Chay Bowes)
https://t.me/golosmordora/41385
https://t.me/rlz_the_kraken/71352
Story was also published on ANR with a link to a video uploaded on jamiemcintyre Rumble channel, but it wasn’t used for coordinated distribution.
With a high confidence, we believe this campaign can be attributed Storm-1516
A likely fictitious testimony claiming Donald Trump donation to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute saved a woman’s life
An unusual campaign originates from two tweets by patriotstorm17 and CarlosSimancas from October 4.
Tweet by patriotstorm17 was posted first, but with a low quality video. It was then shortly reposted by DDG as a reply to a tweet of same account.
Tweet by CarlosSimancas was quoted shortly by Chay Bowes. When we quoted Chay Bowes tweet in our account, Chay silently blocked our account, which we assert as an indicator of us being on the right track in attribution.
DJT had indeed attended their fundraisers. Also, records exist of some donations he made to Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. There is no denying that Donald Trump donations possibly helped to save someone’s life, but this specific testimony and surrounding response looks very off to our team.
With a medium confidence, we believe that it’s likely an attempt to try a different content strategies by Storm-1516. This is what we would call in Russian a “медвежья услуга“.
(fake) Zelensky purchased a Mercedes car, which previously belonged to Adolf Hitler
Story traces back to a publication on AlertChannel X account with link to an article on seattle-tribune.com website, which is recently registered and follows the established patterns of a throwaway websites used in many of the recent Storm-1516 campaigns. Additional fact checking might be found in a thread by Shayan Sardarizadeh.
Original tweet was quoted by Jaymie McIntyre. Additionally, it was posted on ANR and by CarlosSimancas account. We initially observed more publications that we would consider as notable, but it appears that many of them were deleted.
Simon Goddek, who is a CEO of sunfluencer according to his profile description, posted a retraction after posting the original story. We have observed multiple publications by accounts, which are affiliated with sunfluencer X organisation.
Notable Telegram publications include:
https://t.me/warhistoryalconafter/188472
https://t.me/rlz_the_kraken/71449
https://t.me/sanya_florida/20779
With a high confidence, we believe this campaign can be attributed Storm-1516
fondfbr campaigns
While we cannot definitively connect fondfbr with Storm-1516, we have continuously observed a considerable overlap in terms of people and resources which are involved in operations of both groups.
(fake) Kamala Harris, funded and supported by the prison lobby, plans to unleash mass terror against opposition in the US
Cited as “expert”: Öpik Lembit and Tara Reade
(fake) Kamala Harris and her associates are preparing mass terror against Trump using illegal immigrants and Ukrainian refugees
Cited as “expert”: Dan Kovalik
ANR (affiliated with Jamie McIntyre) was used as an intermediary resource for distribution:
https://x.com/DD_Geopolitics/status/1841522706417910100
https://x.com/aussiecossack/status/1841523660873441395
https://x.com/aussiecossack/status/1841525146739220733
https://x.com/ReadeAlexandra/status/1841526997803270284
https://x.com/aussiecossack/status/1841529557486338284
https://x.com/BowesChay/status/1841542377644949661
On the sidelines
DCWeekly gets their first real author
DCWeekly, a fake media website operated by John Dougan, got their first real author: Edvard Chesnokov, who works in "Komsomolskaya Pravda".
A note by Alexey Kovalev suggests that Chesnokov takes pride in every publication in "foreign media", even if it's a third class propaganda outlet, but publication in a completely fake outlet appears to be a new low even for this character.
https://t.me/chesnokmedia/14589 [article link]
While the author may be real, story is a complete fabrication, which alleges a conspiracy of UK intelligence agencies to assassinate Nigel Farage by using “pro-ISIS refugees”.
Жаба и гадюка: conflict between Mike Jones (iEarlGrey) and John Dougan continues
Mike Jones comments on the Hitler’s Mercedes campaign:
As suspected, the source cited for this story is yet another fake AI website - 'The Seattle Tribune'.
Once more a basic wordpress theme website with a URL similar to that of a regional US news outlet.
The fact this person WITHIN RUSSIA, who has already been outted in the Western press, continues to be supported in peddling these utterly nonsensical and credibility damaging fakes is a source of anger and embarrassment for me.
I have done all within my power to report and combat this, seemingly to no avail. To have such agents operating, apparently above repercussion and consequence, is a big blow to morale in the ongoing information war.
We find it interesting that he keep explicitly saying that John Dougan is the man behind Storm-1516 campaigns. While he doesn’t name the name in this specific publication, he called John Dougan “the architect” behind these campaigns in a currently deleted publication when scandal broke out between John Dougan and Graham Phillips. Maybe some day he will also reveal who is bankrolling this operation and other key persons.
While we are being cautious to attribute John Dougan as a coordinator of Storm-1516 group, the evidence base is growing to support this claim.
Additional context on a conflict involving Mike Jones, Graham Phillips and John Dougan: [1] [2] [3] [4]