Associated Incidents
There is a campaign underway to spread Russian propaganda from fake news sites with names that pose as local news organizations in the United States, such as "DC Weekly," "New York News Daily," and "Boston Times." It has been pointed out that a former Florida deputy sheriff who defected to Russia is deeply involved in this campaign. Over 150 Russian fake news sites linked to former Florida deputy sheriff, report finds
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/fake-news-sites-florida-deputy-sheriff-russia-rcna154315
Once a Sheriff's Deputy in Florida, Now a Source of Disinformation From Russia - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/29/business/mark-dougan-russia-disinformation.html
The person in question, John Mark Dougan, was originally a deputy sheriff in Palm Beach County, Florida.
However, in 2016, he was criminally charged with doxing attacks that exposed collected personal information, and defected to Russia.
In Russia, Dougan is a member of an English propaganda group, and has testified at public hearings and appeared on national television under the guise of a journalist.
Mackenzie Sadeghi of NewsGuard, an organization that combats disinformation, discovered a news site called "DC Weekly" in November 2023 while conducting regular internet patrols.
The Fugitive Florida Deputy Sheriff Who Became A Kremlin Disinformation Impresario - NewsGuard
https://www.newsguardtech.com/special-reports/john-mark-dougan-russian-disinformation-network/
Sadeghi, who is familiar with news sites, felt something was off about the existence of the unknown site and its contents, and when he investigated, he found that "DC Weekly" does not exist in Washington, but is hosted in Moscow and is linked to an IP address owned by Dougan. However, when Sadeghi contacted Dugan via WhatsApp, Dugan responded to the interview but said he did not know about the site and denied any ties to Russia.
According to NewsGuard, there are more than 160 fake news sites that Dugan is believed to be running, and he mass-produced fake information such as "President Zelensky has a villa in Florida" and "President Zelensky tried to smuggle 300 kg of cocaine from Argentina" using ChatGPT and DALL-E 3.
This time, Sadeghi discovered that Dugan was specifically connected to fake news sites, but Dugan had been marked as a person who was disseminating pro-Russian propaganda on YouTube even before that.
According to Darren Linville of Clemson University, who has been closely monitoring Dugan's activities, articles posted on fake news sites are spread by Russian influencers and botnets and reported as "facts" by Russian media.
If the information is picked up and reported by media and politicians in Western countries, it is a great success. For example, the news that "President Zelensky bought two yachts" that spread in December 2023 spread in this way and was picked up by Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene and Senator J.D. Vance.
Linville points out that the content of the propaganda has recently been shifting its focus from Ukraine-related topics to the US presidential election.
In addition, Dugan's YouTube account was frozen in 2023. Regarding this, Dugan said on Telegram, "It was because I spoke about a Russian operation to destroy a US-run biological weapons laboratory in Ukraine."