Against Astroturfing and Social Media Manipulation

WASHINGTON — The U.S. government on Wednesday indicted two Russian citizens and seized more than 30 internet domains related to a campaign to influence the American election.

But the trove of information filed in court by the FBI also revealed another bombshell: A Russian operation to manipulate German, French, Italian and U.K. politicians, businesspeople, journalists and other influencers.

The goal of the Kremlin’s campaign in Europe was to sow division, discredit America and undermine support for Ukraine, according to a host of Russian documents, memos and minutes from Russian psychological warfare meetings.

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One memo from Russia’s “Social Design Agency” described a plan to target people via real posts and comments on social media to circumvent social media companies' bot filters.

The Social Design Agency acts under the orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s deputy chief of staff Sergey Kiriyenko, according to the FBI court affidavit.

The Russian document says the goal of the campaign is to “evoke in the audience rational (such as, 'really, why do WE need to help Ukraine?') and emotional (such as, 'Americans are such scumbags!') reactions.”

The psy-ops also relied on so-called doppelgänger domains to spread fake articles and content made to look like they came from Western media outlets.