The White House’s recent exposure of Russian attempts to influence this year’s US presidential election will come as little surprise to anyone who followed disinformation tactics during the last US election.
During the 2020 campaign, the Kremlin used its state-sponsored media outlets, the international television channel RT and the news website and radio station Sputnik, to pump out a raft of content calling the legitimacy of the US democratic process into question. Networks of Russia-sponsored bots and trolls were also found to have been pushing divisive disinformation and conspiracy theories in online networks.
This time around, the US has seized a network of Russian-run internet domains, and sanctioned ten people including Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of RT (formerly Russia Today), for “activities that aim to deteriorate public trust in our institutions”. Sanctions include freezing any property or assets in the US, and potentially restrictions on any US citizen or company that works with them.
