(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Russian propaganda push expected in Chicago for Democratic National Convention, experts say [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-06-03 When the Democratic National Convention hits Chicago in August, demonstrators are expected to take to the streets to draw attention to a wide range of causes — immigration, police misconduct, abortion, the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. What they might never know is how much Russia and other nations will have been aiming to influence the marches and demonstrations near the United Center and McCormick Place convention sites, experts on disinformation say. “The eyes of the world are going to be centered on” the convention, says Max Bergmann, a former State Department official who says Russian has long sought “to exploit our divisions.” “There’s going to be protests, and I think that’s sort of red meat to Russian intelligence services.” Bergmann, a program director with the Center for Strategic International Studies, a Washington think tank, says the convention is ripe for foreign influence campaigns to “sow chaos” and potentially stoke violence. Some online influence efforts have become highly sophisticated. They don’t just focus on spreading propaganda and disinformation on social media and through their own fake news websites, according to Bergmann and others, who say Russians are now building sites that look nearly identical to mainstream Western news outlets with the aim of duping people as they spread their message. Ahead of the 2016 Democratic National Convention, Russian operatives were accused of hacking party leaders’ emails that showed a bias toward nominee Hillary Clinton over her challenger, Sen. Bernie Sanders. The disclosure caused shock waves weeks before the convention and led to the resignation of U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, chairperson of that convention. U.S. intelligence officials concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin directed an operation aimed at boosting the Republican candidacy of Donald Trump, who went on to defeat Clinton. Accusations that Trump and his associates colluded with Russia hung over his term in office, though a special counsel’s investigation found there wasn’t enough evidence to file any criminal charges. U.S. intelligence officials concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin directed an operation aimed at boosting the Republican candidacy of Donald Trump, who went on to defeat Clinton. Allegations that Trump and his associates colluded with Russia hung over his term in office, although a special counsel investigation found there wasn’t enough evidence to bring criminal charges. Russia’s interference efforts this year is likely to be more wide-ranging, from using social media to stoke dissension over hot-button issues to using “human assets” to infiltrate protest groups, Bergmann says. “It could be the case where there are perhaps Russian operatives that are then physically embedded with some of these groups,” he says. “And their job is to instigate on the ground, to be the one that throws the first rock that they set off a degree of violence.” Also, social media has “become way more of a cesspool than it was in 2016,” Bergmann says, pointingto X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that billionaire owner Elon Musk has proclaimed to be a haven for free speech. Bergmann says the platform has “become sort of a safe space for extremists and many who want to do America harm. “In some ways, it’s become a very permissive environment if you’re a Russian intelligence operative,” he says. “That’s the same with Facebook after getting the lion’s share of the scrutiny, I think, after 2016.” Bergmann says Russians are primed to seize on issues such as undocumented immigration and racial justice just as activists are preparing to protest President Joe Biden’s support for Israel’s war against Hamas and the erosion of abortion rights. “This is just a target-rich stew for the Russians to try lots of things and see what works or what doesn’t work,” Bergmann says. “And they’re going to have a high failure rate. But the danger is that they are able to really figure out a way to stoke either violence or instigate a real contrived political scandal.” Read the whole story at the website of WBEZ Chicago [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/6/3/2244618/-Russian-propaganda-push-expected-in-Chicago-for-Democratic-National-Convention-experts-say?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/