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| Sputnik, Feb. 4, 2017. 237 DNI Assessment at 3. 238 Devlin Barrett and David Filipov, RT Files Paperwork With Justice Department To Register As Foreign Agent The Washington Post, Nov. 13, 2017; Josh Gerstein, ‘‘DOJ Told RT To Register As Foreign Agent Partly Because Of Alleged 2016 Election Interference Politico, Dec. 21, 2017; Letter from US. Department of Justice to RTTV America, Aug. 17, 2017. See Foreign Agents Registration Act, 22 U.S.C. § 612; Megan Wilson, Seven Things to Know About RT’s Foreign Agent Registration The Hill, Sept. 14, 2017. Twitter Public Policy Company Announcement RT and Sputnik Advertising Oct. 26, 2017. Alex Hern, Google Plans to ‘De-Rank’ Russia Today and Sputnik to Combat Misinformation The Guardian, Nov. 21, 2017 (citing Schmidt’s remarks at the Halifax International Security Forum, Nov. 18, 2017). Our Latest Quality Improvements for Search Google Official Blog, Apr. 25, 2017. The Kremlin wants its propaganda to reach its audiences first, and it wants to reach them repeatedly. Experimental psychology has shown that first impressions are quite resilient, with individuals more likely to accept the first information they receive on a topic (the illusory truth effect) and favor that information when confronted with conflicting messages. Furthermore, repeated exposure to a statement increases the likelihood that someone will accept that it is Continued them. 234 Sputnik also reportedly orders its foreign journalists to pursue discredited conspiracy theories—it asked one American correspondent to explore possible connections between the death of Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich and the leak of internal DNC documents to WikiLeaks, in an attempt to cast doubt on the US. Director of National Intelligence (DNI) assessment that Russian-backed hackers were behind the leak. 235 And during the French presidential elections, Sputnik reported on unfounded rumors about the sexual preferences of the pro-EU candidate, Emmanuel Macron. 236 In light of the DNI assessment that RT serves as the Kremlin’s principal propaganda outlet and along with Sputnik form Russia s ‘’state-run propaganda machine that served as platforms for the Kremlin’s efforts to influence the 2016 US. election, RT and Sputnik encountered significant pushback in the United States in late In November, RT complied with an order from the US. Department of Justice—which found that it was engaged in political activities that were for or in the interests of a foreign principal—to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). 238 Registration requires RT to disclose more of its financial information to the US. government. 239 A month earlier, Twitter announced that it would no longer allow paid advertisements from RT and Sputnik on its platform, citing the DNI findings and the company’s ongoing review of how its platform was used in the 2016 election. 240 In November 2017, Eric Schmidt, the Executive Chairman of Google’s parent company, reportedly said that the company was working on ‘‘deranking’’ results from RT and Sputnik from its Google News product. 241 However, according to a Google announcement RT and Sputnik’s sites would not be specifically targeted, but rather the company adjusted their signals to help surface more authoritative pages and demote low-quality content giving less weight to relevance and more weight to authoritativeness. 242 Beyond RT and Sputnik, the Russian government uses a variety of additional tools to amplify and reinforce its disinformation cam- paigns. 243 Internet trolls are one such tool—individuals who try VerDate Mar 15 2010 04:06 Jan 09, 2018 Jkt PO 00000 Frm 00049 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6601 S:\FULL COMMITTEE\HEARING FILES\COMMITTEE PRINT 2018\HENRY\JAN. 9 REPORT FOREI-42327 with DISTILLER 44 true—especially when they are less interested in the topic—and makes them process it less carefully in discriminating weak arguments from strong ones. Christopher Paul & Miriam Matthews, The Russian ‘‘Firehose of Falsehood Propaganda Model Rand Corporation, at 4 (2016). Stefan Meister & Jama Puglierin, Perception and Exploitation Russia’s Non-Military Influ- Download 0.63 Mb. Share with your friends:
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