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>Russian-linked Doppelganger operations have systematically cloned major media infrastructure (Reuters, The Washington Post, Fox News) using lookalike domains t

>Russian-linked Doppelganger operations have systematically cloned major media infrastructure (Reuters, The Washington Post, Fox News) using lookalike domains that replicate visual design and URL structure closely enough to pass casual inspection. This purpose-built impersonation infrastructure is supported by fake personas, AI-assisted content, and paid amplification across mainstream social platforms. Are there any live examples out there? Similar to how I like to look at scam/phishing emails to see how they work, I'm interested in seeing how sophisticated these are/are not.

reddozen 5mo ago
[flagged]
jruohonen 5mo ago
> Similar to how I like to look at scam/phishing emails to see how they work, I'm interested in seeing how sophisticated these are/are not. https://edmo.eu/publications/ai-political-influencers-the-new-gods-of-propaganda-and-disinformation/ https://edmo.eu/publications/ai-political-influencers-the-ne...
- stinkbeetle 5mo ago
  Are there any links to any of these Russian doppelganger propaganda sites? That seemed to just be a story about "influencers" and their AI slop.
  - jruohonen 5mo ago
    It is the world wide web so yes there should be plenty of links to those, but I do not have them.
    - Brendinooo 5mo ago
      I did do some searching and any link I found was already dead (hence me asking here!), so it's not really helpful to say "there should be plenty of links".
      - petre 5mo ago
        They set up new ones, don't worry. And the propaganda is largely on brain rotting social media like tiktok and twitterx.
      - reddozen 5mo ago
        Disinformation moved from page rank to the "feed" in 2018 when Douyin bought (read: acquired copyright they originally stole) Musically and rebranded to TikTok. Why does no one remember any of this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_news_websites_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_news_websites_in_the_Unit...
  - mikeyouse 5mo ago
    They were largely taken down after Biden-admin actions in 2024 -- a contemporaneous story about some: https://dfrlab.org/2024/09/18/doppelganger-us-election/ https://dfrlab.org/2024/09/18/doppelganger-us-election/ With a few preserved/archived stories e.g. from FoxNews.top: https://web.archive.org/web/20230922135430/https:/www.fox-news.top/world/US-Is-Turning-into-a-Giant-Pyramid-Scheme.html https://web.archive.org/web/20230922135430/https:/www.fox-ne...
markerz 5mo ago
Took me a bit of digging but I found this screenshot of fox-news.in: https://urlscan.io/result/50f1da5b-5b1f-417c-91b8-8690638a6e5e/ https://urlscan.io/result/50f1da5b-5b1f-417c-91b8-8690638a6e... That URL is linked from https://assets.recordedfuture.com/insikt-report-pdfs/2023/ta-2023-1205.pdf https://assets.recordedfuture.com/insikt-report-pdfs/2023/ta... Which is linked from https://www.recordedfuture.com/research/russian-influence-network-doppelgangers-ai-content-tactics https://www.recordedfuture.com/research/russian-influence-ne...
- thrance 5mo ago
  They made a right-wing Fox News? Why? Isn't it enough already?
tmpz22 5mo ago
Look at the urls on /r/conservative - they’re mostly fly by night websites. Its kind of embarassing actually.
- trueno 5mo ago
  i know the internet has some very not-okay socially never-going-to-be-adjusted and unhinged people on it. i dont doubt that some of them actually are in /r/conservative and think they're among good company. ...but im also mostly certain that sub is heavily gamed/botted and i suppose i'd be zero percent surprised if it was moderated by some hostile annoying nation state. your comment on the types of urls that get posted there is something ive noticed too. the entire subs entire history is weird and it feels like it exists on reddit so other redditors can say "i just checked in /r/conservative and ...". effectively reinforcing political division in the same internet environment in a very weird/unnatural way. i worked a blue collar job for a decade. worked 10 hour days with a lot of conservatives, magas even before i finally left boeing in 2021. met the whole variety of them. the ones who actually were insane, the ones who didnt want to associate with the current flavor of maga unhinged, but still wanted to disassociate from the woke left, and somehow accidentally tripped and fell and started listening to joe rogan... and also the usual middle class suburban parents who have just been conned by sinclaire owned local news. that was a ..... long decade of my life. i don't miss it, i never felt like i was among good company. but one thing i can say, is i never met a single one that used reddit back then & /r/conservative was allegedly popping off in those years. most of them called reddit idk like a "liberal shithole" or something and that was that. just seems kinda weird. above a certain age you're going to be glued to facebook/nextdoor, under that age you're probably financing a dodge ram and listening to joe rogan.. but rarely if ever were these people on reddit.
TFNA 5mo ago
If you want fake personas, view X on a desktop browser through Nitter, a no-bloat interface which allows you to quickly middle-click and open many new tabs. If you go through the history of accounts commenting under pundits' political tweets, you'll soon notice that many accounts claiming to be real, honest-to-goodness Americans have profile photos from This Person Does Not Exist, and their posts are clearly bot-like. The posts are often LLM-generated (before they were manually written, but with telltale mistakes the writer was from Eastern Europe or elsewhere abroad), they might repeat every few days, and they're often single-mindedly about a single issue or two that even a fanatic real human wouldn't be so fixated on.

reddozen 5mo ago

[flagged]

jruohonen 5mo ago

> Similar to how I like to look at scam/phishing emails to see how they work, I'm interested in seeing how sophisticated these are/are not. https://edmo.eu/publications/ai-political-influencers-the-new-gods-of-propaganda-and-disinformation/ https://edmo.eu/publications/ai-political-influencers-the-ne...

stinkbeetle 5mo ago
Are there any links to any of these Russian doppelganger propaganda sites? That seemed to just be a story about "influencers" and their AI slop.
- jruohonen 5mo ago
  It is the world wide web so yes there should be plenty of links to those, but I do not have them.
  - Brendinooo 5mo ago
    I did do some searching and any link I found was already dead (hence me asking here!), so it's not really helpful to say "there should be plenty of links".
    - petre 5mo ago
      They set up new ones, don't worry. And the propaganda is largely on brain rotting social media like tiktok and twitterx.
    - reddozen 5mo ago
      Disinformation moved from page rank to the "feed" in 2018 when Douyin bought (read: acquired copyright they originally stole) Musically and rebranded to TikTok. Why does no one remember any of this? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_news_websites_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_news_websites_in_the_Unit...
- mikeyouse 5mo ago
  They were largely taken down after Biden-admin actions in 2024 -- a contemporaneous story about some: https://dfrlab.org/2024/09/18/doppelganger-us-election/ https://dfrlab.org/2024/09/18/doppelganger-us-election/ With a few preserved/archived stories e.g. from FoxNews.top: https://web.archive.org/web/20230922135430/https:/www.fox-news.top/world/US-Is-Turning-into-a-Giant-Pyramid-Scheme.html https://web.archive.org/web/20230922135430/https:/www.fox-ne...

markerz 5mo ago

Took me a bit of digging but I found this screenshot of fox-news.in: https://urlscan.io/result/50f1da5b-5b1f-417c-91b8-8690638a6e5e/ https://urlscan.io/result/50f1da5b-5b1f-417c-91b8-8690638a6e... That URL is linked from https://assets.recordedfuture.com/insikt-report-pdfs/2023/ta-2023-1205.pdf https://assets.recordedfuture.com/insikt-report-pdfs/2023/ta... Which is linked from https://www.recordedfuture.com/research/russian-influence-network-doppelgangers-ai-content-tactics https://www.recordedfuture.com/research/russian-influence-ne...

thrance 5mo ago
They made a right-wing Fox News? Why? Isn't it enough already?

tmpz22 5mo ago

Look at the urls on /r/conservative - they’re mostly fly by night websites. Its kind of embarassing actually.

trueno 5mo ago
i know the internet has some very not-okay socially never-going-to-be-adjusted and unhinged people on it. i dont doubt that some of them actually are in /r/conservative and think they're among good company. ...but im also mostly certain that sub is heavily gamed/botted and i suppose i'd be zero percent surprised if it was moderated by some hostile annoying nation state. your comment on the types of urls that get posted there is something ive noticed too. the entire subs entire history is weird and it feels like it exists on reddit so other redditors can say "i just checked in /r/conservative and ...". effectively reinforcing political division in the same internet environment in a very weird/unnatural way. i worked a blue collar job for a decade. worked 10 hour days with a lot of conservatives, magas even before i finally left boeing in 2021. met the whole variety of them. the ones who actually were insane, the ones who didnt want to associate with the current flavor of maga unhinged, but still wanted to disassociate from the woke left, and somehow accidentally tripped and fell and started listening to joe rogan... and also the usual middle class suburban parents who have just been conned by sinclaire owned local news. that was a ..... long decade of my life. i don't miss it, i never felt like i was among good company. but one thing i can say, is i never met a single one that used reddit back then & /r/conservative was allegedly popping off in those years. most of them called reddit idk like a "liberal shithole" or something and that was that. just seems kinda weird. above a certain age you're going to be glued to facebook/nextdoor, under that age you're probably financing a dodge ram and listening to joe rogan.. but rarely if ever were these people on reddit.

TFNA 5mo ago

If you want fake personas, view X on a desktop browser through Nitter, a no-bloat interface which allows you to quickly middle-click and open many new tabs. If you go through the history of accounts commenting under pundits' political tweets, you'll soon notice that many accounts claiming to be real, honest-to-goodness Americans have profile photos from This Person Does Not Exist, and their posts are clearly bot-like. The posts are often LLM-generated (before they were manually written, but with telltale mistakes the writer was from Eastern Europe or elsewhere abroad), they might repeat every few days, and they're often single-mindedly about a single issue or two that even a fanatic real human wouldn't be so fixated on.