The US accuses Russia of meddling in upcoming elections
The US Department of Justice indicted a Russian national for her alleged role in a conspiracy to interfere in the US political system by spreading fake news on social media.
The news: In a complaint unsealed on Friday, the department accused Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova of being part of an “information warfare” campaign designed to sow political discord both in the 2016 US presidential election and in this year’s congressional race.
Cash for fakes: According to the indictment, Khusyaynova ran the finances of an initiative called Project Lakhta, which was paid for by companies controlled by a Russian oligarch with close ties to Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin. It’s unclear exactly how much the initiative spent on the US, as it targeted multiple countries. But the indictment claims that in the first six months of this year the operation had an operating budget of $10 million.
Social-media mayhem: The Russians pretended to be grassroots US political activists, hiding their true identities by using virtual private networks as they created thousands of fake social-media and e-mail accounts. These pumped out content on a wide range of divisive issues, including gun control, race relations, and immigration. The operatives often ran posts taking opposing sides in a debate to deliberately stir up controversy and resentment.
Silicon Valley scrutiny: The Justice Department says its investigation received assistance from Facebook and Twitter, both of which have been making greater efforts to prevent foreign powers from spreading disinformation on their platforms. But critics remain concerned that the social-media giants still aren’t doing enough to block the flood of fake news produced by outfits like Project Lakhta.
Deep Dive
Computing
How Rust went from a side project to the world’s most-loved programming language
For decades, coders wrote critical systems in C and C++. Now they turn to Rust.
Welcome to the oldest part of the metaverse
Ultima Online, which just turned 25, offers a lesson in the challenges of building virtual worlds.
These simple design rules could turn the chip industry on its head
An open standard called RISC-V is rewriting the economics of chip design and shaking up the tech sector’s power dynamics.
A new paradigm for managing data
Open data lakehouse architectures speed insights and deliver self-service analytics capabilities.
Stay connected
Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review
Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.