DISINFO: The Internet Research Agency, indicted in US for election meddling, does not exist

DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS

DISINFO: The Internet Research Agency, indicted in US for election meddling, does not exist

SUMMARY

About the meddling. The IRA [Internet Research Agency] does not exist. These are all falsifications of the foreign intelligence services, made after the shameful defeat of Hillary Clinton in the presidential elections. After all, there is no association of people about which they speak. In Russia, this is called falsification.

RESPONSE

The OOO Internet Research Agency was established in St Petersburg on July 26, 2013 with a unique company's taxpayer number (Russian INN) 7805627478. On February 2, 2016, the IRA was indicted in the US. According to the indictment employees of IRA "knowingly and intentionally conspired with each other (...) to defraud the United States by impairing, obstructing, and defeating the lawful functions of the government through fraud and deceit for the purpose of interfering with the U.S. political and electoral processes, including the presidential election of 2016. (...) Defendants, posing as U.S. persons and creating false U.S. personas, operated social media pages and groups designed to attract U.S. audiences. These groups and pages, which addressed divisive U.S. political and social issues, falsely claimed to be controlled by U.S. activists when, in fact, they were controlled by Defendants." The IRA became publicly known as "the St Petersburg's troll factory" before the indictment in the US. In May 2015, its former employee Lyudmila Savchuk sued the company and publicly described its activity as the following: "Hundreds of people are employed. They work 24 hours a day, replacing each other in shifts, write thousands of comments, texts, posts on all social networks, on blogs. They draw pictures, record video blogs ... Their work is global, large-scale. And they do this not only for the Russian-speaking Internet, but also for English-speaking sites". Savchuk was followed by other employees who claimed they are "former trolls". The IRA is connected to other entities, such as US Really and the pretended "information agency" RIA FAN. See more disinformation cases on Russian meddling in the election in US and worldwide.

Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

    %s

      Your opinion matters!

      Data Protection Information *

        Subscribe to the Disinfo Review

        Your weekly update on pro-Kremlin disinformation

        Data Protection Information *

        The Disinformation Review is sent through Mailchimp.com. See Mailchimp’s privacy policy and find out more on how EEAS protects your personal data.

        🎵 Playlist