Just hours before the first presidential debate of the 2024 election, a network of pro-Kremlin X accounts have been discovered online that appear to be pushing fake Fox News stories and promoting Donald Trump.
Multiple articles were found on the platform using the name of real Fox News reporters, and when clicked, took users to a counterfeit version of the Fox News website, according to NBC News.
The effort is reportedly part of a known Russian disinformation campaign which researchers call the “doppelgänger operation,” known for imitating other news websites, including The Washington Post and Le Monde in France.
The fake articles were first identified on X by the account @antibot4navalny, an anonymous group of analysts following Russian-related influence campaigns.
In March, it was reported that roughly 5,000 accounts on X and at least 81 websites were “seeking to divide Americans and amplify Russian propaganda,” according to research done by the cybersecurity company Alethea.
On Thursday, many online were reacting to one article titled “Businesses Choose Trump and a Great America,” which falsely claiming widespread Trump support in Silicon Valley.
Another headline read, “Biden’s presidency could be our downfall. Trump seems to be our only hope of recovery.”
Despite the evolving disinformation tactics, C. Shawn Eib, head of investigations at Alethea, told NBC News that the posts “do not appear to be gaining substantial engagement from authentic U.S. audiences.”