Kremlin troll factory produced a bogus Hillary Clinton ‘sex tape’
Sexytime! (Not) An employee of a Putin-based “troll factory” claims they
hired a black man and Hillary Clinton look-alike to make a sex tape, according to the first former employee of the factory’s American division to go on the record.
Alan Baskaev worked for the troll factory, also known as the Internet Research Agency, for about six months, he told the independent Russian television channel TV Rain.
And his account of the night shift at the troll factory’s American division sheds even more light on the inner workings of the Russian-sponsored effort to influence U.S. elections.
The details are as funny as they are disturbing.
In case you missed it, The Nation recently published a good rundown of what we know (so far) about the Internet Research Agency:
The impact of the Russians’ use of American social media in 2016 may have been much greater than first reported. Initially, it seemed very limited: According to a September statement by Facebook’s chief security officer, Alex Stamos, Russian-government agents spent about $100,000 on something like 3,000 ads through 470 inauthentic Facebook users. However, in introducing the Honest Ads Act, Senator Warner, vice chairman of the SSCI, suggested that what we know now is just “the tip of the iceberg.” And new research, investigative reports, and revelations from inside Russia, are beginning to give us an idea of just how enormous that iceberg is.
With senior officers of internet social media and advertising companies scheduled to appear before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on November 1, Russian meddling is sure to be a major topic of discussion.
