A young Canadian couple named Lauren Chen and Liam Donovan founded a social media platform called Tenet Media in early 2022 after registering a new corporation in Tennessee.
As of November 2023, they have brought together a group of prominent conservative social media figures, such as Tim Pool, Dave Rubin, and Benny Johnson, to contribute original content to Tenet’s platform. Subsequently, the platform started publishing a plethora of videos that propagated conspiracy theories and incisive political commentary on a variety of topics, including immigration, Russia’s conflict with Ukraine, election fraud, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, and Rumble.
The whole thing was a clandestine Russian influence campaign, according to federal prosecutors. Two Russians were charged with the Justice Department on Wednesday with aiding in the conspiracy to pay Tenet $10 million so that Kremlin-friendly sentiments might be conveyed by the stars.
According to American intelligence assessments, Russia’s geopolitical goals include influencing public opinion in the United States and ensuring the reelection of former President Donald J. Trump. The revelations showcase the increasing complexity of the Kremlin’s persistent attempts to accomplish these ends.
Russia attempted to reach American audiences in 2016 and 2020 via legions of internet trolls, false accounts, and bot farms; the success of this effort is debatable. Prosecutors’ description of the operation this week reveals a shift toward using popular social media figures, in this instance those who have amassed 16 million views on Tenet’s YouTube channel.
Russia was footing the bill, but most viewers probably didn’t know that since the influencers claimed that was the case.
“Influencers already have a level of trust with their audience,” stated Jo Lukito, a professor at the journalism school of the University of Texas at Austin who studies Russian disinformation. Thus, “it comes across as more authentic” when information can be relayed directly from an established influencer.
Although the indictment came as a shock to the conservative media landscape of the nation, it also highlighted the increasing ideological alignment between Russia under President Vladimir V. Putin and a sizeable segment of the Republican Party ever since Mr. Trump came to power.
Moscow has long sought to take advantage of partisan divides in the United States, and it finds plenty of ammunition in conservatives who criticize the Biden administration or American foreign policy in general, such as backing Ukraine’s war against Russia.
The indictment, which was revealed on Wednesday after a federal investigation, is a component of a larger government initiative to counteract Russian disinformation, election meddling, and cyberattacks. This initiative was first reported in AWN. Officials in the administration have warned that further charges may result from the endeavor.
Russian efforts to obscure the fact that it was paying for Tenet’s involvement in the country’s political debate were laid out in the indictment.
As part of this operation, Russian officials used offshore entities in Turkey, the UAE, and Mauritius to launder at least $9.7 million. The indictment stated that from last October to August, the payments comprised 90% of the company’s revenue.
Ms. Chen and Mr. Donovan have not been prosecuted by the prosecution at this time. They have not responded to calls for comment, and their whereabouts remain unknown. Although it is a requirement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), the indictment did mention that neither they nor Tenet had registered as an agent of a foreign government.
The influential people at Tenet have all cast themselves as helpless victims of the Russian hoax and have even criticized the US government’s probe. Despite the indictment detailing the company’s sponsors’ attempts to spread certain narratives—some of which were evident in the content they posted—they insisted that they did not take instructions from Russians.
During one episode of his show, Mr. Johnson—a former journalist with over two million YouTube subscribers—reflected a Russian accusation that Ukraine could have been behind a March bombing that killed dozens at a Moscow music venue. Russia has since denied the accusation. (The Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant said they were responsible.)
In July, Lauren Southern—a Canadian far-right commentator with over 1.2 million YouTube and X followers—created a video slamming the Summer Olympics in Paris, mirroring Russia’s attempts to discredit the Games and the French hosts. Southern is another influencer on Tenet’s roster.
Russia even went so far as to pressure Tenet to feature a video by Tucker Carlson, a former Fox News star who currently has his own web series. While on vacation in Moscow this year, he made it while gawking at the abundance in a Moscow grocery.
In a communication included in the indictment, a producer employed by Tenet expressed his belief that Mr. Carlson’s video “just feels like overt shilling.” However, due to pressure from Tenet’s owners, the producer consented to post the tape regardless.
According to Nina Jankowicz, a co-founder of the American Sunlight Project—a Washington advocacy group that combats internet disinformation—”this is a classic case of information laundering.”
The source of influence operations has been obscured for decades by the Russians and other foreign players, she continued. “In this instance, they selected influencers who were previously involved in rage bait, taking advantage of the gaping holes in our society to garner clicks.”
