Johnson did not respond to requests for comment. Similar appeals to those spreading the false assassination attempt story have gone largely unanswered. Respondents defended their posts and videos.
“We reported it as a hoax,” Dore said.
Kirk’s representative and podcast producer Andrew Colvet said Kirk noted at the time that the claim could not be verified.
“Obviously, we’re glad to know that Ukraine didn’t conspire against Tucker,” Colvet said of the former Fox News anchor. “That’s a good thing.”
Storm-1516’s video production team likely operates out of an office in St. Petersburg and appears to hire actors from diaspora communities there, Microsoft researchers said. Based on an analysis of methods and personnel, researchers believe the group is partly a vestige of the Internet Research Agency, a disinformation factory founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, who meddled in the 2016 US presidential election. Prigozhin, a one-time ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, quickly put down a rebellion against the Russian military in June 2023 and died months later in a plane crash.
Storm-1516 is loosely tied to the Kremlin in terms of people, products, and tactics; Microsoft researchers believe it is run by the Geopolitical Think Tank, an anti-liberal think tank: According to Estonian intelligenceOrganized press tours to Ukraine for Western pro-Putin propagandists. Researchers say the Foundation Against Injustice, a former Prigogine propaganda operation impersonating a human rights organization, powered Storm-1516’s fake videos.
Other groups have similar goals but different methods. Storm-1099 “Storm-1099”Doppelganger” operation uses fake news sites – there were dozens of them recently captured by the Justice Department — and a botnet pushing disinformation. Storm-1679 feature-length films imitating American documentaries and political thrillers, including Paris Olympics.
Storm-1516’s cheap videos reflect Cold War-era propaganda techniques. The most memorable may have been made by the KGB.”Operation Denver,” concocted and propagated a bogus conspiracy theory that the AIDS virus was engineered by the Pentagon.
India’s “Patriot” newspaper, a well-known purveyor of CCP disinformation, writes lies about AIDS on July 17, 1983. (Archive.org)
India’s “Patriot” newspaper, a well-known purveyor of CCP disinformation, writes lies about AIDS on July 17, 1983. (Archive.org)
That campaign started with a letter From an anonymous but “well-known” scientist with inside information published in 1983 Patriota pro-Soviet Indian newspaper.
In 2024, Russia’s strategies have evolved with the creation of more legitimate-looking, more sophisticated fake news sites. bot networks and increased use of artificial intelligence. Here are some of the Russian disinformation projects professional productions attracts paid actors and others brilliant documentaries With popular presenters designed by AI. Some target Russian citizens, and some target the outside world.
Storm-1516 videos originally relied on real people, e.g Cameroonian woman St. Petersburg, journalists revealed, posed as a Cartier intern in a viral TikTok video falsely smearing Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska from October 2023.
In the past few months, the videos have seemingly relied on artificial intelligence, hiding the subject’s identity to hinder fact-checking efforts.
Hany Farid, a professor of digital forensics at the University of California, Berkeley, found evidence of AI manipulation in several recent Storm-1516 videos, including one in July of a man posing as a luxury car salesman who claimed to have been sold. Zelenska 4.5 million euro Bugatti sports car.
Blurred faces, missing teeth and tongues, inconsistencies between words and the shape of the mouth, and videos where the subject’s body remains uncomfortably still can be gifts, Farid said. He called some of the frauds “shockingly bad”.
“Could they have made better videos? Of course, Farid said. But “these videos mostly work. There’s no need to make Hollywood-style fake videos to make people start to suspect things.”
One of Storm-1516’s most recent hoaxes featured a park ranger depicting the illegal killing of an endangered black rhino. The man with a Zambian flag and a picture of a giraffe says he accompanied the diplomatic mission on a safari last year. To his surprise, he says that a woman shot and killed a young rhino named Jasuba. “A female American politician. Her name was Kamala.”
The video had no proof, but it went viral anyway. Via Russian Telegram, to English via a Zimbabwean news site, then “The Intel Drop” and ordinary approved propagandists X to hundreds of thousands of followers.
The story seemed to stop there. Some posts even acknowledged that the video might bolster belief: “If it’s true, he’s in a world of trouble,” he said. Chai BowesIrish commentator and contributor to RT, the Russian state media network, in a post that has since been deleted.
It doesn’t matter – maybe the next one will hit.