Russian trolls tricked Donald Trump Jr. using a fake Kid Rock account

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Russian trolls spreading far-right conspiracy theories online managed to trick Donald Trump Jr. thinking a fake Kid Rock post was real.

In one of many attempts to interfere in the US election, Russian trolls created a fake account pretending to be a MAGA musician. A post from the account KidRockOfficial peddling a conspiracy theory about Ivermectin, a bogus Covid cure, and oil supplies caught the attention of the former president’s son.

Donald Trump Jr., who is said to be friends with Kid Rock in real life, took a screenshot of the post from Gettr, and then posted it on Instagram with the caption yup.

The post is just one small part of a broader trend in which bad actors are taking advantage of social media apps such as Gab, Gettr and Truth Social, the platform created by former President Donald Trump, using free-for-all policies. all to their advantage.

The trolls impersonated various American conservatives, cross-posted on various platforms, and reportedly spread pro-Russian propaganda, disinformation already popular among far-right groups, including also conspiracy theories about Ukraine and bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX.

The new report links the accounts to Russia

These findings come from a new report by social media tracking firm Graphika and Stanford Universitys Internet Observatory, which tracked a set of 35 accounts on the Newsroom for American European Based Citizens (NAEBC) a fake outlet linked to Russian trolls. Between them, the accounts have garnered around 33,000 unique followers on Truth social, Gab and Gettr.

Researchers discovered that KidRockOfficial is identical to another account on Gab, which was already flagged by the FBI in 2020 as being run by the Internet Research Agency, a Russian troll farm. It reappeared with the same handle on another platform.

This is not the first time that posts on the right-wing platform have been linked back to Russian trolls; however, this is the first time such accounts have been identified on Truth Social.

Due to an apparent lack of enforcement, actors have established a level of persistence unavailable on most major platforms and are able to carry out their operations with relative ease, the report said.

Gab founder Andrew Torba said in a statement that if the platform had been notified by law enforcement about such activity, we would have investigated and taken action.

Gettr’s CEO also said in a statement that the company takes a robust and proactive approach to moderation, and removed all Russia Today accounts earlier this year due to the breach [its] Terms of Service. Our platform always complies with local law enforcement authorities and has been repeatedly praised for its moderation approach by third-parties such as Bot Sentinel CEO Cristopher Bouzy.

Truth Social, Kid Rock and Donald Trump Jr. did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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