NCS
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Russian propagandists exploited celebrity videos from the favored platform Cameo to assist their misinformation campaigns, cybersecurity researchers at Microsoft mentioned.
Starting in July, pro-Russia social media channels started circulating videos of American celebrities that have been “deceptively edited to push anti-Ukraine propaganda,” in accordance to a report printed Thursday by Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center. The report mentioned an unknown Russia-aligned affect actor leveraged Cameo, the favored web site the place individuals will pay public figures for personalised video messages, to get hold of these videos of celebrities, together with actor Elijah Wood and boxer Mike Tyson.
The celebrities have been apparently unaware that these videos have been then edited in ways in which appeared to assault Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“The short video messages, which often feature celebrities pleading with ‘Vladimir’ to seek help for substance abuse, are edited by the unknown actor to include emojis and links,” in accordance to the report. The videos have been shared extensively by pro-Russian social media accounts, after which have been additional amplified by state-backed Russian media shops, the report mentioned, the place they have been inaccurately portrayed as messages interesting straight to President Zelensky.
Russia’s US embassy didn’t reply to NCS’s request for remark.
The Microsoft researchers mentioned they noticed at the very least seven of those kind of manipulated celebrity video messages getting used since late July 2023. In addition to Wood and Tyson, videos featured different US celebrities similar to Priscilla Presley, and actors Dean Norris, Kate Flannery and John McGinley. A consultant for Tyson instructed NCS in an assertion that the videos circulating of Tyson have been false, and he had “zero involvement” with “creating such content.” “Anything outside of his usual lighthearted cameo videos are being altered,” the consultant added.
The different celebrities named within the report didn’t instantly reply to NCS’s requests for remark.
The videos have been edited in some instances to make it appear to be they have been interviews with information shops or from a celebrity’s personal social media account – and a part of broader pleas to Zelensky to get assist for a supposed substance abuse difficulty.
“Kremlin officials and Russian state-sponsored propaganda have long promoted the false claim that President Zelensky struggles with substance abuse; however, this campaign marks a novel approach by pro-Russia actors seeking to further the narrative in the online information space,” the Microsoft researchers said within the report.
A Cameo spokesperson instructed NCS in an announcement that the corporate doesn’t publicly remark “on the details of its Trust & Safety investigations.” The spokesperson added, nonetheless, that these kind of videos “would violate Cameo’s Community Guidelines, and in cases where such violations are substantiated Cameo will typically take steps to remove the problematic content and suspend the purchaser’s account to help prevent further issues.”