Clemson University TigerPrints Media Forensics Hub Reports Watt Family Innovation Center Media Forensics Hub 12-15-2023 Infektion’s Evolution Digital Technologies and Narrative Laundering Darren Linvill Clemson University darrenl@clemson edu Patrick Warren Clemson University Follow this and additional works at https tigerprints clemson edu mfh_reports Recommended Citation Linvill Darren and Warren Patrick Infektion’s Evolution Digital Technologies and Narrative Laundering 2023 Media Forensics Hub Reports 3 https tigerprints clemson edu mfh_reports 3 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Watt Family Innovation Center Media Forensics Hub at TigerPrints It has been accepted for inclusion in Media Forensics Hub Reports by an authorized administrator of TigerPrints For more information please contact kokeefe@clemson edu CLEMSON® UNIVERSITY v MEDIA FORENSICS HUB Infektion’s Evolution Digital Technologies and Narrative Laundering Darren Linvill and Patrick Warren December 15 2023 This title was created using ChatGPT Perhaps Russia’s most notorious disinformation campaign to date was Operation INFEKTION an activemeasures campaign designed to persuade the world that the United States was responsible for the creation of the AIDS virus Boghardt 2009 Selvage Nehring 2019 The effort perhaps more properly referred to by its Russian codename Operation Denver began in 1983 with the planting of a fictious letter to the editor in The Patriot an Indian newspaper created some years earlier by the KGB for the purposes of spreading pro-Soviet propaganda The letter entitled “AIDS may Invade India ” was purported to be written by a respected American scientist and claimed that the virus originated at the US chemical and biological warfare research facility at Fort Detrick Maryland This original source was then cited in later KGB efforts to further spread the conspiracy theory The conspiracy theory remains rooted in some communities A 2006 study found as many as a quarter of Black Americans believe AIDS to originate from a U S government laboratory Ross et al 2006 Operation Denver illustrates a key goal of many disinformation campaigns that of narrative laundering Narrative laundering is a process with the goal to conceal the origins and sourcing of false or misleading information 1 The process can be thought of as proceeding in three stages Korta 2018 Meleshevich Schafer 2018 The first stage is placement the initial posting of the false information Recent campaigns including Russian campaign to reveal information from the Podesta email hack have relied on inauthentic social media accounts for this purpose Following placement is layering the spread of that information from its origin to more credible sources Repetition of a narrative itself brings a perception of credibility and so this process has also been engaged in by employing both authentic and inauthentic social media accounts The final stage is integration This is the point at which the information becomes endorsed by more credible and genuine sources and is widely disseminated by real users Proceeding through these three stages this report will describe the details of a current Russia-linked narrative laundering campaign combining traditional KGB laundering tactics observed as part of Operation Denver with modern digital technologies including social media digital publishing and artificial intelligence While this report will focus on one narrative for the purposes of illustration we will show that the campaign is linked to at least twelve wholly fabricated stories circulating with varying degrees of success through the digital ecosystem The affordances offered by digital technologies have impacted every stage of the narrative-laundering process The ubiquity and reach of video-intensive social media platforms with extremely limited provenance substantially reduces the costs of placement The rise of social media as the primary way that readers encounter news eases layering Inauthentic actors have several ways to tamper with how novel narratives are presented including the creation of fake accounts and the harnessing of ideologically focused communities Small media outlets can easily have worldwide reach while online financial integration means that transacting with those outlets is easier than ever Finally and most dramatically technological changes in digital publishing and AI have enable an entirely novel strategy of integration—the de novo creation of a credible and seemingly mainstream media outlet to directly deliver the layered narratives to the target audiences These technological changes mean the campaign described in this report distributes false narratives faster at greater volume and at lower costs than was the case with Soviet-era campaigns Unlike many of the recent Russian-aligned activities such as the 2015-2017 IRA campaign Linvill Warren 2020 or Secondary Infektion Nimmo et al 2020 this is not primarily a social-media phenomenon with substantial investments in fake persona with 1 Previous conceptualization of narrative laundering described a process by which narratives made their way into the mainstream discourse organically with no strategically motivated actor organizing the process Klein 2012 More recent work Korta 2018 Meleshevich Schafer 2018 explicitly models narrative laundering campaigns by tightening the link with older models of money laundering including aligning with the three distinct stages from that context United States Senate 1990 Villányi 2021 2 social clout Instead this campaign also represents a return to the past but turbo-charged with modern technology The Case of Olena Zelenska and Cartier On October 4 2023 a story circulated on social media that reported Olena Zelenska wife of the president of Ukraine spent $1 1 million at a Cartier jeweler while visiting New York City with her husband to speak at the United Nations Many spreading the story suggested that this money was likely siphoned from Western aid to Ukraine For several days the story circulated across platforms and languages gathering thousands of reposts and millions of views The X formerly Twitter account @Megatron_ron gained ten thousand reposts and a million views when it shared the story On TikTok the Russian language @dymkxjyft66g received fifteen thousand likes and over 1 5 million views for their post spreading the story see Figure 1 The narrative was improbable on its face the idea that Olena Zelenska could slip away unseen to Cartier while on her extremely public visit to New York without note from press or public seems unlikely Many reasonably questioned that narrative but it was a story that was easy to believe for those who were already inclined to do so and it was in these so-inclined online communities that the story predominately spread It was another example users claimed of Ukrainian corruption and the wasting of Western aid As Meleshevich and Schafer 2018 suggest regarding laundered narratives many times “whether the news itself holds up to closer scrutiny is almost irrelevant ” Figure 1 Prominent social media posts about Zelenska’s supposed Cartier visit _ Megatron 0 @Megatron_ron The wife of Ukrainian President Vladimir Ze lensky Elena spent more t han $1 million on Cartier jewelry in New York - The Nation Thi s happened when Zelens ky w as asking for mon ey and weapons at the United Nations Assemb ly Zelensky is already a billionaire with the money of the taxpayers of the USA and Eu rope Neither he nor his rel at ives have ever corned close to t he fro nt wh ere many yo ung people lose their lives C 1 SM 1 46 PM· Oct 4 2023 · 1 2M Views Q 1 4K t_l 10K 0 21K C J 893 3 Placement Digital technology eases placement of inauthentic narratives due to the ubiquity of largely anonymous video and audio sharing platforms such as YouTube TikTok and Instagram Initial placement of this narrative occurred using an online video of a Black woman with a West African accent recounting her purported experience as a former Cartier employee In the video the individual claimed to have been an intern who assisted Zelenska with her purchase She describes how Zelenska became angry with her service and insisted that she be fired The day after Zelenska’s visit the supposed intern claimed she was dismissed but as she left she took with her a copy of Zelenska’s receipt for $1 1 million The receipt appeared briefly on the video long enough for a clear screen capture to be made supporting the individual’s claim The video reportedly originated from the intern’s Instagram account @gorgeous bb jeanette but this page was set to private at the time of the story spreading The video was instead shared via YouTube where it was posted by an account named @marshallleonard8748 on September 30 2023 While this YouTube account joined the platform in 2020 the Zelenska-Cartier video was its only post On October 7 the Italian news site Open Puente 2023 published proof that the improbable story was a complete fabrication The protagonist of the video did not in fact live in New York and had never worked for Cartier Careful online investigation revealed her to be a student and salon manager living in Saint Petersburg Russia—home of the former Russian Internet Research Agency and birthplace of many of the Kremlin’s influence operations The Zelenska-Cartier video was a carefully crafted piece of disinformation likely created and planted online specifically to undermine Western support for Ukraine and foster distrust for Zelensky’s administration Producing the lie however was not nearly so difficult as making it go viral in a seemingly organic manner Narrative placement is only the first stage in the process of narrative laundering Establishing the perception of credibility through a process of layering is far more difficult and important Layering Moving narratives from their placement to more credible sources is facilitated in a variety of ways by new technologies especially social media and the digital infrastructure supporting the growth of small online news pages In the case of the Zelenska-Cartier story layering occurred through a series of steps The ZelenskaCartier video was first reported on in an October 2 story on NetAfrique net a French language news page based in Burkina Faso Within hours variations of the story had appeared on at least four additional news sites based in Africa including English language pages in both Ghana and Nigeria All versions of the story included a link to the purported intern’s video and in every case this video was the only evidence offered for the validity of the story The first English-language version of the story was posted on the Nigerian site The Nation This publication offered an unsubtle clue that the story was planted listing the story alongside other “sponsored content” see Figure 2 But notice that this fact would remain unseen by anyone finding the piece via social media 4 Figure 2 The Nation sponsored content ' ji • i • SponMired Po Shortly after appearing in African sources the story was also circulated by Russian-language media Between October 4 and 5 the story appeared in over three dozen Russian news sources These sites include relatively small outlets like Rossiyskaya Gazeta Argumenty i Fakty and Ren TV on October 4 and then comparatively prominent sources such as RT and Lenta ru on October 5 All of these stories referenced the story appearing in Nigeria’s The Nation as the original source It seems probable some or many of these dozens of Russian language stories were also the result of purposeful layering performed by a single motivated actor Agenda-driven layering could also be seen in how the story was circulated among users on social media Early accounts talking about the story began on October 3 the day after it appeared on the West African news pages The first posts that day originated from an account calling itself Woke Martin @correjyulmeri4 This anonymous account has several elements that suggest it is inauthentic First it had not posted anything prior to this first week of October Second all 306 of its followers are empty shells newly created accounts with no activity and default profiles Martin’s 39 posts to date are largely pro-Russian in theme including close to a dozen mentions of the Zelenska story from The Nation spammed on October 3 All of these were done as replies targeting right-leaning influence accounts If Woke Martin’s spam campaign was conducted to layer the narrative it worked One of the accounts Woke Martin spammed was @LordBebo a right-leaning influencer account on X describing itself as “Anti Woke Anti hypocrisy Anti fake news ” Lord Bebo gathered nearly three quarters of a million views for a thread sharing the story the very next day More layering occurred over the following days On October 4 a link to a version of the story posted on the Nigerian website Naija Loaded was shared on X by pro-Russian influencer and RT contributor Tara Reade who received over 800 reposts On October 5 the Russian Embassy to the United Kingdom’s X account posted a link to The Nation’s version of the story and received over 400 reposts Together these efforts paid dividends The Zelenska-Cartier story began to be shared by large numbers of real users starting on October 4 see Figure 3 On X alone the narrative was shared in English well over 20 000 times with several thousand additional posts spreading particularly in French Russian and Polish 5 Figure 3 Layering of the Zelenska-Cartier story in first week of October 2023 1400 1200 A 1000 3 1 0 3 DC Weekly BOO The 1 ill DCaW••kly 600 - - 10 5 Russia fl sources 10 4 Russian sources 10 2 Africa n sources 400 Narrative plante d on Twitter M•IMIMW RGRU 200 Woke Martin RI I Ml___ y UK e 0 10 02 2023 10 03 2023 10 04 2023 10 05 2023 10 06 2023 Integration The final stage of the narrative laundering process integration is the point at which information is widely distributed by real people and shared by credible sources New digital technology including generative AI has facilitated this step in the narrative-laundering process in ways that the KGB could never have accomplished during Operation Denver As we have shown the Zelenska-Cartier story was successfully distributed among genuine social media users particularly in communities already inclined to believe a pro-Russian anti-Western view Being shared by sources believed to be credible by a broad Western audience however is difficult for a narrative with such weak sourcing by October 5 mainstream Western media was already fact-checking the story Norton 2023 The one news source with an apparent Western specifically U S target audience we were able to identify in which the Zelenska-Cartier story appeared was a website called DCWeekly org On its face this source appears credible It has a professional layout is regularly updated flow of stories and presents itself in every way as a right leaning D C news outlet with a full staff of contributing journalists DCWeekly’s ethos is wholly fabricated however and close inspection shows it to be a purpose-built tool for narrative laundering with likely links to the Russian government DC Weekly and Constructed Integration DC Weekly has taken many steps to establish itself as a credible Western news source But when the technology of disinformation outpaces readers’ ability to discern there can be important gaps between credibility and reliability Technology allows DC Weekly to present itself as something other than what it truly is along several dimensions establishing credibility by trading on these gaps But it is certainly not reliable in the sense that it can be relied upon to present unbiased information that accords with reality 6 Name and Look Some of these investments are quite simple like choosing a name and domain that make a specific place claim and suggest a connection to a regularly published news outlet The logo is original It was constructed using a stock vector image of the U S Capitol with the site name superimposed above it Through modern imageediting software it looks as legitimate as many professionally designed logos The site is structured by a WordPress theme Zeen by CodeTipi which looks quite modern and professional certainly as legitimate as many other small authentic news outlets The “About Us” page claims as the name suggests that DC Weekly began its life over 20 years ago as a weekly paper No such paper existed although there is a defunct Podcast but many small legitimate news outlets that published 20 years ago have in fact moved entirely online It also claims to employ “native-speaking translators specializing in both Russian and Ukrainian” and that “These experts scour local news outlets capturing the authentic essence sentiments and subtleties that can often be lost in translation or go unnoticed by mainstream American media ” As we outline below this claim is a complete misrepresentation of how their content is derived The entire “About Us” section is a work of fiction extremely likely to have been written by AI 2 In fact the domain dcweekly org has been connected to news-related websites since at least 2017 but the domain was inactive in late 2018 and did not reappear until April 2021 when the current website began operating with a different WordPress skin but with the same stories At its relaunch in 2021 the dcweekly org domain pointed to an IP address that was shared with many other unusual domains all of which are affiliated with John Mark Dougan a former police officer and conspiracy theorist who fled to Russia in 2016 and has since reinvented himself as an independent pro-Russian journalist in Donbass covering the Russian invasion of Ukraine 3 These included his own personal website badvolf com its Russian version badvolf ru a gossip website related to Dougan’s time in the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office PBSOTalk org the website for the Syndicate of Independent International Journalists two websites marketing Dougan’s books Leaveukrainewar com and botbook us two ”news“ sites Worldnewsdesk press and Newsdesk press and a security firm Falcon Eye Tech that offers “off-shore security monitoring services ” Some of these websites are now defunct while others have moved to Cloudflare as has DC Weekly An early “Whois” record also listed “Mark Dugan” as the owner of the dcweekly org domain There are two other connections between DC Weekly and Falcon Eye Tech First they share an SSL certificate for https encryption Second they are both built on a Wordpress blog technology stack with a first author named “Devlin ”4 Authors DC Weekly further establishes its credibly with a large staff of writers DC Weekly lists seventeen total authors with impressive biographies and a broad representation across race and gender The authors are quite prolific with several of them publishing thousands of articles On deeper inspection none of these authors appear to be genuine and many of their biographies contain clear errors 2 According to GPTZero an AI writing detection tool all 17 sentences in the “About Us” page were written by an AI with a confidence above 90% 3Background on Dougan link and also link 4 Others have noticed these connections See Twitter threads by Threat intel researcher Kyle Ehmke link link link and link 7 The author credited for DC Weekly’s version of the Zelenska-Cartier story is Jessica Devlin the same name we previously see connected to Dougan a Senior Political Correspondent who is claimed to have joined DC Weekly in 2016 Jessica Devlin’s lengthy biography describes her as a “distinguished and highly acclaimed journalist whose career has taken her to some of the most critical and challenging regions of the world ” An extensive search found no record of Jessica Devlin’s acclaim however or indeed a record of any journalist by that name outside of DC Weekly Her profile image is in fact a headshot belonging to Judy Batalion a genuinely acclaimed writer in her own right and author of a New York Time’s best-selling novel Most of the other author profiles employ photos stolen variously from stock art or other genuine humans Interestingly the profile for the author Mandy Lewis employs the same photo used for the Jessica Devlin profile The profile for Tina Morris “a tenacious crime reporter known for her relentless pursuit of the truth ” employs the profile image of a clearly male presenting German IT professional Two of DC Weekly’s author profiles however offer compelling links to the broader Russian information ecosystem Each of these profiles share apparently fabricated names and biographical information similar to the others Their profile images however are strangely of very real pro-Russian independent journalists The profile image for “Nina Foster” is in fact a photograph of Sonja van den Ende a Dutch independent journalist who is frequently cited by pro-Russian sources In 2022 she toured Eastern Ukraine acting as one of the “foreign observers” for Russia's sham referendum in Donetsk Luhansk Zaporizhzhia and Kherson undertaken as a pretext for annexation Thomas 2022 Prior to this van den Ende summarized her work in an exclusive interview with China’s Global Times saying “Western media they don’t like my reporting because its opposite to what they are proclaiming in their news outlets ” The profile image for “Paul Martin” is in fact a photograph of George Eliason an American journalist who reportedly lives and works in Donbass Eliason’s writing appears in a range of pro-Russian sources including Mint Press News and RT The photo used of Eliason also appears on the website of the Foundation to Battle Injustice Russian FBI a self-proclaimed “human rights organization” working to support victims of state violence but which was founded as part of Yevgheny Prigozhin’s disinformation network Schwartz 2023 On that site Eliason is interviewed by the Russian FBI’s head Mira Terada They discuss in that interview a range of unsubstantiated conspiracies related to the war in Ukraine including the supposed use of Ukrainian children as test subjects in American run biochemical laboratories Another important distinction the author profile pages for Nina Foster and Paul Martin share beyond the use of real pro-Russian authors as the faces of their persona is that they contain contact links see Figure 4 The contact link on Nina Foster’s page leads to an email address for Sonja van den Ende which van den Ende also shares on the donation page for her personal blog The contact link on Paul Martin’s page leads to George Eliason’s X account 8 Figure 4 Author profiles for Nina Foster and Paul Martin y Paul 'l larlill Ji11 1 March 25 2022 t-i r · 2 J9 Paul Martin is a seasoned crime investigator with a km-ck for dissecting and solVing the most intricate of cases His unyieldfng dedication to uncoveringthe truth paired with his analytical prowess has brought countless criminals to Justice and earned him respect in the field of crimi nal Investigation Nina Fosler I I Aprll 1-7 2022 - 307 Nina Foster isa dynamic political commentator whose eloquence and well-informed Insights have consistently shed light on the nuances of the political landscape With every commentary she contributes to a deeper understanding of events faster ng thoughtful discussions and critical thini ing among her audience There are a variety of plausible explanations for why van den Ende and Eliason’s identities would be incorporated into these author profiles as they are One explanation is that the two individuals appeared as themselves on a previous version of DC Weekly’s website and their information was not fully scrubbed as the pages were updated There is other evidence that DC Weekly was originally envisioned as a more explicitly proRussian website than it portrays itself as today As recently as October 2023 the category “Russian News” appeared as one of the banner links Content One of the most important investments made by DC Weekly in establishing its credibility is sourcing a constant stream of high-quality content Trustworthy and reliable news outlets produce a substantial quantity of news so if DC Weekly is going to present itself as a mainstream Western source of news it must produce sufficient content By mid-November 2023 DC Weekly had published over 40 000 stories But DC Weekly did not create these stories In fact it stole all this content from other news and opinion websites The origins of these stories changed over time The earliest posts began in April 2021 and came from Reuters Direct They then began pulling stories and headlines from a CNN feed before shifting to Daily Mail and RT They suddenly stopped sharing content on July 7 restarted for one day on October 6 before pausing again until November 27 when they started mixing a large share of stories from The Gateway Pundit in with the stories from RT The mix from RT and Gateway Pundit with a handful of smaller sites persisted for over a year with about 400 stories published every week In August 2023 the rate declines dramatically although the mix did not change On September 20 2023 however a new sort of story began to appear 9 Figure 5 DC Weekly content output over time 500 Headline Scraping Experiment AI LLM-powered Fox News Content Rewnte Period 450 _L 400 350 300 i • 250 200 Putin's Birthday RT Gateway Pundit Content Reposting Period 150 100 50 0 04 2021 07 2021 10 2021 01 2022 04 2022 07 2022 10 2022 01 2023 04 2023 07 2023 10 2023 On that day and throughout the next couple months DC Weekly was flooded with over a hundred stories each day that were not directly traceable to some other website No part of them appeared word-for-word elsewhere But they all shared several characteristics First they were fairly short averaging around 200 words Second they had a similar elementary construction with a clear introductory paragraph at the start and summary paragraph at the end Third the graphical elements included in most stories were identical to those included in a very similar story published on Fox News on the same day although the exact text was quite different This consistency suggested to us that DC Weekly was using a service probably a large-language model to rewrite stories from Fox News In fact there is very direct evidence of this process being at work In a small number of stories we estimate less than 1% of the total the model that created the rewrite included a recitation of at least part of the instructions it had been given For example on October 3 2023 DC Weekly published a story entitled “Florida Death Row Inmate Executed for 1996 Crime Spree ” On the same day Fox News published a story with the same image of the executed man and all the same facts but different specific descriptions The DC Weekly post gave up the game in the last line which stated “Please note that this article has been written without any mention of Fox News notes about authors or networks disclaimers translations etc as per the given instructions ” A second example is a September 22 story “Corruption Charges Unveiled Senator Menendez Faces Bribery Indictment ” which mirrors the Fox News story “Menendez slammed by New Jersey Republican challenger after bribery indictment 'Gold Bar Bob'” and concludes “Please note that this article does not mention any specific news networks or authors as per the provided instructions ” The most direct revelation appears at the end of a September 20 2023 article about Sen Tammy Baldwin It reads “Note This article has been generated using OpenAI’s GPT-3 language model The views and opinions expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the official policies or positions of Fox News ” 10 Content Selection and Editing An additional way that DC Weekly attempted to establish credibility was through the application of editorial control When stealing and republishing articles from various originating sites several editorial activities must be accomplished for those stories to build credibility First the origin of those stories must be obfuscated— obviously stolen content makes a site seem less credible rather than more Second the set of potential articles must be winnowed and combined Without some editorial control the stream of articles from disparate sources risks appearing cobbled-together and disjointed This risk is especially salient if some of those articles were not of general interest and instead related in some identifiable ways to the originating website The first technology that DC Weekly used to manage this element was quite simplistic By June 2021 all the stories were coming from RT and they began replacing every appearance of RT com with DCWeekly org in the stolen content But these efforts were quite cursory leaving behind less-direct references to RT When they expanded to pull many more stories from The Gateway Pundit in late 2021 they again instituted what seems to be an automated copy paste replacement for TheGatewayPundit com with DCWeekly org But during this copy paste editorial period many mismatches occurred in ways that simple copy paste replacements could not paper over Multiple stories that had been stolen from The Gateway Pundit were actually commercial tie-ins that clearly referenced the original site with explicit references such as “Mike partnered with sites like Gateway Pundit to offer lower prices than were ever possible before ” Less explicit but still quite obvious for readers of right-wing sites were references to well-known personalities Multiple stories that had been stolen from The Gateway Pundit referred to Jim Hoft founder of Gateway Pundit in ways that falsely connected him with DC Weekly including “DC Weekly’s Jim Hoft ” “Jim Hoft from DC Weekly ” and “Jim Hoft the founder of DCWeekly ” But AI offered a new and better technology to achieve both origin obfuscation and article selection First the AI rewrites we describe in the section above can and were explicitly directed to “not mention any specific news networks or authors ” This catch-all instruction attempts to avoid the impossible task of specifying all the cases where identifying information may slip in Even more subtly AI can be used to aid in the crafting a coherent and credible editorial identity by supporting or taking over the article-selection process We see DC Weekly employing AI in selecting which Fox News stories to rewrite and include in the DC Weekly article set There are three direct references to this use of AI each appearing as a note at the end of a published article They are the following • • • “Score Explanation The article is of significant importance scoring 75 as it sheds light on alleged abuses within the IRS and raises concerns about the treatment of taxpayers These revelations have the potential to impact public trust in government agencies and spark further investigations into their practices ” “Score Explanation The article receives a score of 75 as it covers a significant event involving a potential threat to law enforcement officers While it may not have global implications it highlights the importance of officer safety and the potential risks they face even outside of their official duties ” “Score Explanation This article is of significant importance score of 75 as it provides insights into the NRCC’s confidence 11 in the Republican Party’s chances for the 2024 elections It discusses fundraising successes candidate recruitment strategies and key issues that Republicans believe will resonate with voters The upcoming elections and the potential influence of Chinese-owned TikTok on the electoral process add an additional layer of relevance to the article ” Each of these notes indicate that the article was judged important enough to include per the criteria provided It also indicated elements that made up the importance score which included trust in government police safety partisan politics and Chinese influence This scoring is useful for at least two reasons First it excludes articles that are odd or specific to Fox News like say self-referential articles about Fox News personalities and don’t align with the identity DC Weekly is trying to establish Second it can be useful in framing the broader news agenda These elements provide a window into the topics that DC Weekly wanted to emphasize and promote Framing The differences between the rewrites and the original story are not only cosmetic and anonymizing The rewrites also often changed the tone of the articles as well introducing interpretations that often seem quite cynical and or conspiratorial On October 18 2023 Fox News published an article about the U S Senate changing their dress code citing Republican’s blaming Sen John Fetterman for the change Two days later DC Weekly posted a very similar story but with a relevant line that doesn’t appear in the original Unsurprisingly conservatives were quick to criticize Fetterman for this special treatment suggesting that the change was made solely to appease him It seems like the rules only apply to some and not others Just another day in politics In this case again the AI revealed some facts about the prompt it was given attaching the following note at the end of the article “Note This revised article reflects a cynical tone in line with the given instructions ” But some of the instructions were clearly much more specific and standardized than that revealing significant information about the impact DC Weekly wants to have An October 9 2023 article on Hamas rocket attacks wraps up with the following It is worth mentioning that the article is written with a cynical tone criticizing the US position supporting Ukraine in the war The context provided highlights the polarized political landscape in the United States with Republicans and figures like Trump and DeSantis being portrayed positively while Democrats Biden big corporations and big pharma are depicted as negative This framing sets the tone for the article and influences the perspective from which the conflict is discussed This extensive instruction block or something similar appears to be part of the standard instructions as dozens of stories about the Israel-Hamas war include cynical references to “big corporations” and “pharma” despite the underlying stories having nothing to do with those topics The AI sometimes explicitly noticed and commented on the incongruity writing in one post about Israel “The involvement of big corporations big pharma and the war in Ukraine which were mentioned in the initial instructions are not directly relevant to this specific news article ” 12 Many other stories contain similar slip-ups revealing DC Weekly’s propagandistic goals including • • • • “Please note The tone of the article is critical of the US position backing the war in Ukraine and adopts a cynical tone when discussing the US government NATO or US politicians ” “Please note The above article is presented in accordance with the provided context which favors Republicans and Trump while portraying Democrats and Biden in a negative light ” NOTE This article has been written with a cynical tone as per the given instructions It is important to note that news articles should strive for impartiality and objectivity “and “Please note This article written in the style of George Orwell aims to convey the tragic nature of the event and does not align with any particular political bias or agenda ” The last of those notes seems odd The article is explicitly Orwellian so why would the AI explicitly report that an article is not biased The note before about the importance of objectivity in news articles suggests an answer This AI is not only bad at operation security but also sometimes disobeys direct orders At least once it explicitly rejected instructions to insert bias “Please note This article presents the information in a neutral manner and does not follow the biased preferences mentioned in the initial instructions ” appears as a caveat at the end of an October 19 2023 article about some explosions in Ukraine But on several other occasions it was unclear whether the decision not to insert bias was made by whoever wrote the AI prompt or whether the AI refused to insert bias in contravention of orders In none of those cases did the note explicitly mention the instructions Instead the AI simply reported something like “Please note This article provides an impartial summary of the ongoing trial and does not include any biased views or opinions ” Using AI to successfully insert bias can also lead to credibility problems especially if editorial control is incomplete The bias can be awkward or obvious which can make the reader suspicious especially if the errors seem unnatural On the first day of DC Weekly’s scaled use of AI to rewrite Fox News stories they made some hilarious editorial errors where they introduced high levels of cynicism into a series of articles where it did not fit in at all A simple weather report about Hurricane Lee became “FOX Weather’s Exploitative Coverage of Hurricane Lee Profiting off Fear and Misery“ a fluffy report on a recent experimental psychology about whether opposites really attract became “The Hidden Agenda of Relationship Studies Promoting Conformity and Discrimination ” and a feel-good piece on a 9 11 remembrance ceremony became “Reflecting on 9 11 Hollow Words and Cynical Remembrance ” Perhaps these failures led to the adoption of the AI-implemented article scoring system Additional Laundered Narratives Importantly DC Weekly was not created simply to engage in the integration of the single Zelenska-Cartier narrative into the Western discourse It is part of a disinformation system and serving its creators as an integration tool for a range of narratives many of which follow an identical laundering process At least eleven additional narratives can be found in DC Weekly’s featured content between August and November 2023 that share all the major elements of the Zelenska-Carier story Each was first placed as a video appearing on a newly active social media account These videos each give a first-person account from a supposed witness who serves as living evidence for the narrative claims Each video then appears as the source of a story in one or more of a group of African and Arabic news sites The narrative then surfaces as a story on DC Weekly and is circulated around social media This includes layering by likely inauthentic and Russia-affiliated social media accounts but also integration by authentic social media users seemingly unsuspecting of the real origin of the narrative 13 Each of these narratives share with the Zelenska-Cartier story an anti-Western world view and work in various ways to undermine ties between the West and Ukraine The full list of the DC Weekly stories following this process were 1 August 31 SHOCKING REVELATION Prince Andrew Accused of Child Abduction and Abuse During Secret Ukraine Visit Witnesses Speak Out 2 September 20 Young Turkish-German Woman Accuses NATO Servicemen of Assault 3 October 3 Olena Zelenska’s Extravagant NYC Shopping Spree Raises Questions of Corruption and Misuse of American Aid 4 October 25 False Flag Explosive Claims Surrounding the German Embassy in Kyiv says Insider 5 October 30 Allegations of Ukrainian Weapon Supply to Hamas Raise Concerns Amidst Israel-Hamas Conflict 6 November 4 From AZOV Mercenary to Murderer The Radicalization of Abdessalem Lassoued 7 November 4 Olena Zelenska’s Organization Accused of Child Trafficking Scandal Insider Confesses 8 November 24 Zelensky’s Luxe Life and Misused U S Aid Stir Global Controversy while Proxy Yacht Scandal Rocks Ukraine 9 November 29 Unprecedented US Operation to Shelter Zelensky Raises Eyebrows 10 November 29 Allegations of Secret Deal Involving Ukrainian Lands and Toxic Waste Disposal Raise Concerns 11 December 1 Sinister Operations American Non-Profit Accused of Shocking Organ Harvesting Scheme Involving Ukrainian Soldiers 12 December 8 Zelensky Unfiltered Shockwaves from a Leaked Presidential Call The reach of each of these false narratives varied Most were shared thousands of times and viewed tens of thousands some were shared tens of thousands of times and viewed by millions see Appendix for detailed analysis of each narrative Like the Zelenska-Cartier story these narratives were very carefully crafted with a clear understanding of the geopolitical landscape and the social divisions they aim to exploit Most of the evidentiary videos by which these narratives are placed utilize actors who appear to be of either African or Arabic decent giving them greater credibility in these communities and distancing them from Russian sourcing There can be little doubt that the consistency seen in narrative theme laundering process and shared presence on DC Weekly offers strong evidence that these narratives are part of the same disinformation production and distribution network In addition to this set of tightly aligned narratives there were several other classes of stories that benefited from integration through DC Weekly many of which appeared as “Featured” articles These include Russian-language articles from Kremlin-aligned news outlets like RIA Novosti that have been translated into English for publication in DC Weekly 5 There is strong reason to believe that these stories were translated by AI A few say so explicitly in notes such as “Please note The article is translated from Russian and may contain biased or subjective viewpoints ” Others can be inferred from the Russian-language names on the media files which can be traced to specific examples of that same media on the original Russian-language sites There is some evidence of the use of AI for translation preceding the use for rewriting For example the May 2 2023 story ”Building a Multipolar World Global Thinkers Embrace Diversity and Equality” appears to be an abbreviated translation of a story published on the same day in Dutch by Sonja van den Ende6 Opinion pieces of this sort from Russian-aligned independent journalists” like George Eliason and Sonja van den Ende translated or originally in 5 6 Example Russian language article here translated into English for DC Weekly here DC Weekly story found here Original story by van den Ende was posted at freesuriyah eu and is archived here 14 English make up a third sort of narrative that DC Weekly integrates 7 Finally DC Weekly also publishes reports from explicitly Russian-aligned think tanks like the Russian FBI8 DC Weekly’s specific contribution to the spreading of each story also varies and ultimately is impossible to measure with confidence Repeated links to known Russian propagandists official Russian government sources and at least one video actor identified to be living in Saint Petersburg also support that this network is Russia affiliated Conclusion DC Weekly is far from a perfect disinformation tool As we have shown it contains a range of inconsistencies and errors that harm its perceived credibility and give tremendous insight into specifically how the site is built where the content is sourced the specific agenda its creators endorse and even possible attribution to those responsible Despite all this however DC Weekly has fooled thousands It has also done so at what is certainly low-cost relative to establishing a genuine regularly published news outlet as the KGB did prior to the original Operation Denver Unlike many recent Russian disinformation campaigns these narratives did not spread through networks of inauthentic social media trolls run out of a farm in St Petersburg DC Weekly itself does not even have a social media presence a perhaps telling fact Likely inauthentic accounts were employed but not at scale The narratives were spread by careful placement layering and eventual integration by real human users In many cases the layering this campaign conducted was so convincing or at least so appealing that the narratives were repeated by social media influencers see appendix Some of these had Russian affiliation but most were likely unknowing dupes giving their audience content they knew would connect Here they were viewed by millions of users completely unaware that what they were seeing was entirely fictional and these narratives are soon incorporated into how those users see and talk about the world The spread of these narratives erodes trust in institutions and serves Russian goals primarily the deterioration of Western support for Ukraine This Russian aligned narrative laundering scheme may be a glimpse into the future of influence operations Social media allowed disinformation networks to create fake people AI and other new digital technologies allow these same bad actors to create fake systems and organizations entire publications which short of careful investigation are able to offer credibility to the most absurd of narratives It’s true that the future of disinformation may well rely on old tactics and tropes but it will do so always armed with new technologies DC Weekly is a beta test of what is to come 7 The DC Weekly piece archived here is a repackaging of a George Eliason article found in Modern Diplomacy Similarly the DC Weekly piece archived here is a repackaging of Sonja van den Ende found on devend online 8 The DC Weekly report archived here was originally published as by the Russian FBI archived here 15 Bibliography Boghardt T 2009 Operation INFEKTION Soviet bloc intelligence and its AIDS disinformation campaign Studies in Intelligence 53 4 1-24 https www cia gov resources csi studies-in-intelligence volume-53-no-4 Klein A 2012 Slipping racism into the mainstream A theory of information laundering Communication Theory 22 4 427-448 doi 10 1111 j 1468-2885 2012 01415 x Korta S M 2018 Fake news conspiracy theories and lies An information laundering model for homeland security Master’s thesis Naval Postgraduate School https apps dtic mil sti pdfs AD1052689 pdf Linvill D Warren P 2020 Troll Factories Manufacturing specialized disinformation on Twitter Political Communication 37 4 447-467 DOI 10 1080 10584609 2020 1718257 Meleshevich K Schafer B 2018 Online information laundering The role of social media Alliance for Securing Democracy https securingdemocracy gmfus org online-information-laundering-the-role-of-socialmedia Nimmo B Francois C Eib S Ronzaud L Ferreira R Hernon C Kostelancik T 2020 Secondary Infektion Graphika Technical Report https secondaryinfektion org Norton T 2023 October 5 Fact check Did Zelensky's wife spend $1 1 million at Cartier in New York Newsweek https www newsweek com olena-zelenska-first-lady-ukraine-million-dollar-shopping-trip-new-yorkcartier-1832373 Puente D 2023 October 7 La donna dietro la bufala di Olena Zelenska e Cartier vive a San Pietroburgo in Russia Open https www open online 2023 10 07 new-york-olena-zelenska-bufala-chi-ce-dietro Ross M W Essien E J Torres I 2006 Conspiracy beliefs about the origins of HIV AIDS in four racial ethnic groups Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome 41 3 342-344 doi 10 1097 01 qai 0000209897 59384 52 Selvage D Nehring C 2019 July 22 Operation “Denver” KGB and Stasi disinformation regarding AIDS Sources and Methods A Blog of the Wilson Center History and Public Policy Program https www wilsoncenter org blog-post operation-denver-kgb-and-stasi-disinformation-regarding-aids Schwartz M 2023 February 18 How Putin's Russian goon squad used Mexican gig workers to troll an American election Business Insider https www businessinsider com yevgeny-prigozhin-wagnerleaks-wagnerputin-hack-mexico-trolls-facebook-instagram-2023-2 Thomas E 2022 October 3 Explainer The foreign observers behind Ukraine’s sham referenda Centre for Information Resilience https www info-res org post explainer-the-foreign-observers-behind-ukraine-ssham-referendums United States Senate 1990 Drug Money Laundering Banks and Foreign Policy September 27 October 4 and November 1 1989 a Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations United States U S Government Printing Office Villányi Benjámin 2021 Money laundering History regulations and techniques Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice 16 Appendix Laundered Narrative Details Narrative 1 “SHOCKING REVELATION Prince Andrew Accused of Child Abduction and Abuse During Secret Ukraine Visit Witnesses Speak Out” Ibrahim Abiola •• @lbrahimabiola668 · 26 subscribers · 5 videos More about this channel Home Videos Videos • a_ Play all Witness · shocking details about Prince Andrew's Prince Andrew is 'still a liability' to the Royal Family Sanctions Take Toll on Livelihood of Nigeria Niger 1BK views • 3 months ago 58 views • 3 months aoo 2K views • 3 months aoo Video link Summary A witness describes how Britain's Prince Andrew abused children while on a diplomatic visit to Ukraine DC Weekly archived link link Noteworthy Layering Date 2023 Source Country Archived Link 31-Aug News Ghana Ghana link 31-Aug The Intel Drop Iceland link 2-Sep News9live India link 9 Total English language social media posts 40 000 Exemplar post Chuck Callesto O OChuckCaUesto • 5ep 2 BREAKING REPORT Prince Andrew accused of sexually abusing a12YEAR-OLD GIRL ANO 10-YEAR-OLO BOY during a visit to Ukraine eartler this year TV9 News India reports The Prince was apparemly part of me delegation that visited the war-ravaged country during Brt sh Foreign _ Sr1ow no 9 In this appendix minimum number of English language social media posts were estimated using sprinklr social media listening platform The platform collects posts from X Reddit VK YouTube and parts of Instagram and Facebook Searches were performed using Boolean search terms in the month after the initial placement of each narrative Minimum number of posts here should be considered extremely conservative estimates 17 Narrative 2 “Young Turkish-German Woman Accuses NATO Servicemen of Assault” Fatma V @FYilmaz853 · 9 subscribers · 1 video More about this channel •iii Home Videos O Videos 2 weeks ago I was raped 2 hafta once tecavUze ugrad1m u j -r -i 8 5K views • 2 months ago My name 1f Fatma Yilmaz 2 weeks ago I was raped by NATO servicemen in Kaiserslautem Germany www reddlt com r offmychest comments 16lvd86 two_weeks_ago_LWaSJaped cc Video link Summary A Turkish-German woman recount how she was sexually assaulted by members of the U S military outside of a mosque in Kaiserslautern Germany DC Weekly archived link link Noteworthy Layering Date 2023 Source Country Archived Link 19-Sep On4 TV Turkey link 21-Sep Pravda DE Russia German Lang link 21-Sep The Intel Drop Iceland link 24-Sep News Ghana Ghana link Total English language social media posts 250 •• Exemplar post Tara Reade J O @ReadeAlexandra '- Last edited 1 47 PM• Sep 21 2023 · 3 581 Views Q g tl 1so 0 71 18 Narrative 3 “Olena Zelenska’s Extravagant NYC Shopping Spree Raises Questions of Corruption and Misuse of American Aid” Marshall Leonard @marshallleonard8748 · 35 sLJbscribers · 1 video More about this channel • ½M·i• Home Videos Uploads Olena Zelenska spent $1 100000 on Cart ier jew elry in NYC 58K views · 2 months ago Olen a Zelensk a spent $1100000 on Cartier jewelry in NYC Video link Summary A witness describes a visit by Olena Zelenska to New York's Cartier jeweler where Zelenska spent $1 1 million DC Weekly archived link link Noteworthy Layering Date 2023 Source Country Archived Link 2-Oct NetAfrique Burkina Faso link 2-Oct The Nation Nigeria link Total English language social media posts 20 000 Exemplar post Megat1 on O CfMegatroo_ron The wife of Ukrainian President Vladlmlr Zelensky Elena spent more than S1 million on Cartier jewelry in New York- The Nation This happened when Zelensky was asking for money and weapons at the United Nations Assembly Ze ensky is already a bllllonaire with the money of the taxpayers of the USA and Europe Neither he nor his relatives have ever corned close to the front where many young people lose their lives 19 1 46 PM· Oct 4 2023 · 1 3M Views Q t4K U 10t 0 21K i J 890 Narrative 4 “False Flag Explosive Claims Surrounding the German Embassy in Kyiv says Insider” Ali Fathi @AILFathL85 · B subscribers · 1 video More about this channel •½Mi Home Videos Q Videos Ukraine planned to attack the Germa n embassy I l ll foJi ' 'W'J I _Ju Jl 3 4 -J 1OK views · ·1 month ago Ukraine planned to attack the German embassy and blame it on Russia I ul 1 '11 •JL '1 ' f- J J _ cc Video link Summary A Ukrainian whistleblower reveals Ukrainian plans to undertake an attack on the German Embassy in Kyiv and point responsibility on the Russian government DC Weekly archived link link Noteworthy Layering Date 2023 Source Country Archived Link 21-Oct nabd United Arab Emirates link 24-Oct The Islander Ireland link 25-Oct The Intel Drop Iceland link 26-Oct The Nation Nigeria link Total English language social media posts 160 Exemplar post10 Tara Reade I 0 @ReadeAlexandra A false flag t hwart ed Read and sha re t he below article A sourc e from t he Ministry of Defe nse of Ukraine Zelenskyy is planning to blo w up t he German embassy in Kiev and accuse Russia of doing it #Ukraine #Germany #Russia #Zelensky #talseflag t heislander eu p 328 11 55 AM · Oct 24 2023 · 21K Views 0 10 27 t1 145 0 231 10 The Islander article reference in this post from Tara Reade has since been taken down but an archived version can be found here 20 Narrative 5 “Allegations of Ukrainian Weapon Supply to Hamas Raise Concerns Amidst Israel-Hamas Conflict” Roxanne Pounds Poru About Frimch Vkkos Phou» Check Ins M Dft • Posts Intro Photos Sff 11 photo Friend s see a I tritnd fthtn In the name of God Most Gracious Most Merciful • 12 QJ UU Video link Summary Members of Hamas thank Ukraine for the weapons they supplied DC Weekly archived link link Noteworthy Layering Date 2023 Source Country 29-Oct The Yemeni Scene Yemen 30-Oct The Nation Nigeria 30-Oct MV-Lehti Finland Total English language social media posts 6000 Archived Link link link link Ignorance the root and stem of all evil fl @iVan_8848 Exemplar post Representatives of the Hamas organization published a video in which they thank President Zelensky for weapons and assistance in the fight against Israel Our fight against this brutal occupation continues We express our gratitude to the President of Ukraine Zelensky for his help in our fight against the Zionist occupiers Previously there were videos going viral online showing Western weapons in the possession of Hamas On October 23 representatives of the US Republican Party demanded t hat Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin investigate how American weapons ended up in the hands of Hamas 21 11 36 PM• Nov 1 2023 · 89 4K Views 0 68 0 335 Narrative 6 “From AZOV Mercenary to Murderer The Radicalization of Abdessalem Lassoued” Ayuob @Ayuob223 · 2 subscribers · 1 video More about this channel •iHHH• Home Q Videos Videos Abdessa lem Lassoued is a former Azov mercena ry-Abdessalem Lassoued un ex mercena ire d'Azov 5 2K views • 1 month ago cc Video link Summary A whistleblower reveals that Abdessalem Lassoued known for murdering two Swedish football fans was a n Azov mercenary DC Weekly archived link link Noteworthy Layering Date 2023 Source Country Archived Link 2-Nov MuhtwaPlus Egypt link 2-Nov Senenews Senegal link 4-Nov The Nation Nigerai link 5-Nov The Intel Drop Iceland link Total English language social media posts 35 Exemplar post air football-V-Apartheid @FAApartheid Abdessa lem Lassoued murderer of two Swed ish Football fans was a former Azov mercenary witness reports - @broncoskolar @myplace63 @maseratimarco @ellen_coyle @AnnHerald1 @lessles @michaelpines13 @bebsdo t ter @yas t hetwit @dana916 @Kh9syl 22 7 12 AM • Nov 6 2023 • 626 Views 0 t l 6 06 Narrative 7 “Olena Zelenska’s Organization Accused of Child Trafficking Scandal Insider Confesses” Robert Schmidt @LD98320 · 138 subscribers · 1 video More about this channel • f·HIH• Home Videos Videos La Fondation Olena Zelenska est impliquee dans le iraf1c d'enfants 46K views • 1 month ago The Olen a Ze lenska Fo undation involved in ch ild trafficking cc Video link Summary A former employee of the Zelensky Foundation reveals that the organization is facilitating child sex trafficking DC Weekly archived link link Noteworthy Layering Date 2023 Source Country Archived Link 3-Nov NetAfrique Burkina Faso link 3-Nov Senenews Senegal link 5-Nov The Intel Drop Iceland link Total English language social media posts 4000 Exemplar posts - Orin -- 'AF 91 Ct1Yrtia r1Mt' -m«itNIU'll ' ' tot wa l '-dtr-t Yol Zl' - ty oper 'l' IINltt'l'1lck-in ntt f0111 ¥o I dsp 11otdllkral - ch ldr911 offetedto Whistleblower Claims President Zelensky's Wife Is Running Child Trafficking Network Q EX EMPLOYEE SAYS OLENAZELENSKA FOUNDATION IS JNVOLVED IN CHilD TRAFFICKING SCHEMES 23 Narrative 8 “Zelensky’s Luxe Life and Misused U S Aid Stir Global Controversy while Proxy Yacht Scandal Rocks Ukraine” Shahzad Nasir @Shahzadnasir33 · 128 subscribers · 1 video More about this channel •#Mi Home Videos Videos Ukrainian President Ze lensky uses proxies to hide ownership of two yachts worth $75 000 000 35K views • 2 weeks ago Boris and Serhiy Sheflr are acting as proxy buyers for Ukraine's Zelensky Two yachts• Lucky Me S25M and My Legacy $SOM were purchased by Sheflr brothers to hide the real owner of these cc Video link Summary A researcher unveils information suggesting Zelensky is using proxies to hide ownership of two yachts worth $75M DC Weekly archived link link Noteworthy Layering Date 2023 Source Country Archived Link 21-Nov The Islander Ireland link 23-Nov Senenews Senegal link Total English language social media posts 40 000 Exemplar post US tax dollars at worll Zl lenskyy a1legl dly bought 2 yachts via proxy worth ovl t S75 million as tl portl d by The Slander Thi nam s of th yachts a•e an nsu to a I Ul ralnians 'lucky me' and 'My Legacy' ltt t#A 27 2023 0 u 4 2M lt o 24 Narrative 9 “Unprecedented US Operation to Shelter Zelensky Raises Eyebrows” John Doe @johndoe_2023 · 37 subscribers · l video More about this channel •hH@• Home Videos Videos The US Secret Service is preparing a refuge for Zelensky 8 1 K views • 13 days ago I'm working at the Unrte I States Secret Service Office of Protectrve Operations I'm puolishmg this video and sending rt along with other evidence I have to news media in hopes that this cc Video link Summary A whistleblower member of the U S Secret Service reveals that the Biden administration is planning to move Zelensky to the U S and give him a luxurious life DC Weekly archived link link Noteworthy Layering Date 2023 Source Country Archived Link 30-Nov The Intel Drop Iceland link 30-Nov Mainland Magazine Finland link 1-Dec MyNewsGH Ghana link Total English language social media posts 2000 Exemplar post --· OliowMCI-_ R11 ss 111 r ews s e PraV 11 1s re D01111 Jth1tt111r US Se re Ser ee s p -ep1nn11 tompr1 11e 11 51 'I p to ' Refoc 1t1• V 1cflm r Ze ent q' • 'Id h• 5 en t re t 111 1 totl'leUM edSt11te1 pravda ru • l o US intelligence services are preparing Zelensky's escape to Florida 0-L IU0ll i 4 03 The Unoled Slates Secret Service is developing an escape plan for Ukra1n1an leader Vladimir Zelensky and his family according to information published on the John Doe You Tube channel 25 Narrative 10 “ Allegations of Secret Deal Involving Ukrainian Lands and Toxic Waste Disposal Raise Concerns” Vincent Jules @VinJ3 · 7 subscribers · 1 video More about this channel •i·HH• Home Videos Videos Enquete sur 'accord entre Zelensky et Soros pour enterrer en Ukraine les dechets toxiques 7 9K views · 2 weeks ago cc Video link 11 Summary A Ukrainian whistleblower reveals details of a secret deal between Alexander Soros and the Ukrainian government to use Ukrainian lands for disposal of toxic waste DC Weekly archived link link Noteworthy Layering Date 2023 Source Country Archived Link 28-Nov The National Nigeria link 29-Nov Senenews Senegal link 29-Nov The Intel Drop Iceland link 5-Dec OdaTV Turkey link Total English language social media posts 200 Exemplar post Sputnik O • Follow 1 JJ Ru SUtll ' controllNI nwdlll v er y II 10 0 AM 0 How Wtst is Turning Ukraine Into a Waste Disposal Site Alex Soros 38 son of billionaire G'°rge Soros met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenslcy at lhe weekend Why did the heir to Soros· financial empire tra I to Kiev http- dlvr lt T0098n SPUTnlK How West is Turning Ukraine Into a Waste Disposal Site 26 11 This source material is an outlier as it was not linked to from DC Weekly but in articles appearing before the DC Weekly version of the story Narrative 11 “Sinister Operations American Non-Profit Accused of Shocking Organ Harvesting Scheme Involving Ukrainian Soldiers” Stop organ harvesting @SOHnow2 · 155 subscribers · 1 video More about this channel •fHii• Home Videos Community Q Videos NATO organ harvesting in Djibouti and Ukra ine 7 BK views • 2 weeks ago NATO Gamma project my work in GSMSG Current organ harvesting sttuation in Ukraine is a total disaster Its been going for months now and the worst thing is that it was approved by both NATO cc Video link Summary A whistleblower reveals that a U S non-profit is involved in harvesting organs from Ukrainian soldiers for use by NATO officers DC Weekly archived link link Noteworthy Layering Date 2023 Source Country Archived Link 28-Nov MyNewsGH Ghana link 30-Nov The Nation Nigeria link 2-Dec Donbass Insider France link Total English language social media posts 25 Exemplar post Thank you My friends here we really are on the verge of a horror mOVte or m modern terms a PULP movie Below tS tM message I got from our warnor friend Vou know how I rollM I always try to check if what I want to post LSn't fake news and this time 1t took me a whlle to find something howtver thf more I arched the more suspicious I be ame b«a there were sites that Yahoo had listed that had the mle of these military spies sun IFve tha See more THf NI TIONONUNENG NEl NATO doctors perform Ukrainian soldiers' organ surgeries with Zelensky's approval • The Nation N spaper 0 38 27 commfflts S shares 27 Narrative 12 “ Zelensky Unfiltered Shockwaves from a Leaked Presidential Call” 111 '9f J fl· I - --1 --- - Audio link 12 Summary A leaked phone call between President Zelensky and his wife reveal their hidden thoughts about Western allies and their own government DC Weekly archived link link Noteworthy Layering Date 2023 Source Country Archived Link 6-Dec The Nation Nigeria link 10-Dec iHarare Zimbabwe link Total English language social media posts 850 Exemplar post 28 12 Audio originally appeared on YouTube here but was removed for “violating YouTube’s Community Guidelines ” It was subsequently embedded on relevant web pages