Taylor Swift’s Pro-Russia Doppelganger
Uncanny Valley | WIRED14 Joulu 2023

Taylor Swift’s Pro-Russia Doppelganger

Does your favorite movie star or pop singer really love the Kremlin? Though the ads in your Facebook feed may lead you to believe such a thing, it’s just not true. In recent months, a major disinformation campaign has run rampant on Meta and X (aka Facebook and Twitter). The campaign uses fake ads that show existing photos of extremely famous celebrities—Beyoncé, Oprah, Justin Bieber, Shakira, Cristiano Ronaldo—which have been doctored to include fake quotes that back Russia and criticize Ukraine. The campaign, which is still in progress, was perpetrated by a pre-Kremlin group known as Doppelganger. Information shared exclusively with WIRED has also linked this disinformation campaign to Russia’s GRU military spy agency.

On this week’s show, we talk with WIRED contributor David Gilbert, who reports on digital disinformation. David says Doppelganger has been acting in plain sight for over a year, buying targeted ads and using networks of bots and fake Facebook pages to get its pro-Russia propaganda in front of millions of people.

Show Notes:

Read David’s story about Doppelganger’s campaign. Read all of David’s recent coverage. Also read our coverage of other online propaganda campaigns.

Recommendations:

David recommends the movie Saltburn. Mike recommends buying Italian blood orange soda instead of sparkling cider for your next holiday part. Lauren recommends supporting a union!

David Gilbert can be found wrangling all kinds of disinformation on social media @daithaigilbert. Lauren Goode is @LaurenGoode. Michael Calore is @snackfight. Bling the main hotline at @GadgetLab. The show is produced by Boone Ashworth (@booneashworth). Our theme music is by Solar Keys.

Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Jaksot(429)

A Former DOGE Staffer Speaks Out

A Former DOGE Staffer Speaks Out

Zoë Schiffer is joined by WIRED’s Vittoria Elliott to discuss her conversation with Sahil Lavingia. Lavingia worked at Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency, within the Department ...

27 Kesä 202541min

Disney Just Threw a Punch in a Major AI Fight

Disney Just Threw a Punch in a Major AI Fight

Disney and Universal recently filed suit against Midjourney, an AI image generation startup, alleging the company has become a “bottomless pit of plagiarism,” and that it freely reproduces the studio'...

26 Kesä 202539min

Seriously, What Is 'Superintelligence'?

Seriously, What Is 'Superintelligence'?

Meta just announced a major move in its AI efforts – investing in Scale AI and building a superintelligence AI research lab. While Meta has been trying to keep up with big names in the AI race, such a...

19 Kesä 202537min

The Chatbot Disinfo Inflaming the L.A. Protests

The Chatbot Disinfo Inflaming the L.A. Protests

In recent days, Los Angeles residents have taken to the streets to protest the Trump administration’s immigration policies and the increasingly frequent ICE raids. WIRED’s Senior Politics Editor Leah ...

13 Kesä 202518min

Unpacking AI Agents

Unpacking AI Agents

In the past six months, OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, and others have released web-browsing agents that are designed to complete tasks independently, with only minimal input from humans. OpenAI CEO Sam A...

12 Kesä 202535min

One, Big, Beautiful Breakup

One, Big, Beautiful Breakup

WIRED's Senior Politics Editor Leah Feiger joins Zoë Schiffer, WIRED's Director of Business & Industry to discuss the ongoing fallout between President Trump and Elon Musk, and the future of DOGE.Arti...

6 Kesä 202522min

Why Silicon Valley Needs Immigration

Why Silicon Valley Needs Immigration

Expanded deportations, a virtually shutdown asylum process, increased scrutiny of H1-B visa applicants—immigration policy has been overhauled under the latest Trump administration. And, just last week...

5 Kesä 202534min

Let's Talk About ChatGPT and Cheating In The Classroom

Let's Talk About ChatGPT and Cheating In The Classroom

There’s been a lot of talk about how AI tools like ChatGPT are changing education. Students are using AI to do research, write papers, and get better grades. So today on the show, we debate whether us...

22 Touko 202549min