It’s a major takedown: the US Department of Justice (DOJ) announced on Wednesday, September 4, that it had sanctioned ten people and seized 32 websites, as part of an investigation into several Russian disinformation operations targeting the American presidential election. The country’s investigators believe that the main part of this campaign was directly financed and controlled by senior executives at RT, the Russian state channel, which has been banned from broadcasting in Europe since the start of the war in Ukraine.
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At the heart of this disinformation operation aimed at dividing the population was a little-known company: Tenet Media, headquartered in the state of Tennessee and which presents itself as “the place where the voices of the fearless are expressed”. This production company publishes a large number of videos on social networks, with moderate success – it has just over 300,000 subscribers on YouTube, but only 4,000 on TikTok.
On the other hand, the company has managed to attract some big names from the American far right, such as its star influencer Tim Pool, who hosts a regular podcast for Tenet Media called “The Culture War.” Tim Pool began his career in the early 2010s by participating in the progressive Occupy Wall Street movement, which led to his hiring by the online media Vicefor which he produced reports, before resigning. At the same time, he switched politically, multiplying collaborations with hard-right influencers over the last ten years. According to documents made public by the American DOJ, his contract provided for a remuneration of approximately 400,000 euros per month.
Far-right influencers
Tenet Media had also signed agreements with other content producers, such as Canadian far-right activist Lauren Southern, conservative YouTuber Matt Christiansen, and Benny Johnson, a former contributor to the far-right media outlet Breitbart. The influencers concerned, however, deny having knowingly participated in a Russian influence campaign: the DOJ documents specify that the two owners of the company had not provided information on the origin of the funds used to pay their video producers. “If these allegations are true, I and other personalities and commentators have been victims of deceptioncommented Tim Pool on Wednesday night. The “Culture War” podcast existed long before any broadcast deal with Tenet and will continue afterward.”
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