A Kremlin-backed propaganda network is allegedly behind a disinformation campaign targeting Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz, spreading false rumors that he sexually assaulted former students, according to WIRED.
Various experts allege that the network Storm-1516 is behind these efforts. This network is tied to many false claims, including one that alleged Kamala Harris committed a hit-and-run in 2011.
The misinformation campaign against Walz has primarily taken place within the past few weeks. Deepfakes and anonymous allegations were spread against the former football coach stemming exclusively from QAnon accounts and shared by other far-right sources. These have been shared by right-wing figures like Trump campaigner Jack Posobiec and activist Candace Owens.
The most recent claim stole information from a former student of Walz to craft an elaborate deepfake that alleges Walz sexually assaulted him. The video was quickly identified by users on X as fake, and even the man depicted in the video spoke out to say it was entirely fabricated.
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Darren Linvill, co-director of Clemson University’s Media Forensics Hub, told WIRED that this is a common tactic from Russia’s playbook. “There is little doubt this is Storm-1516,” said Linvill, who helped uncover Storm-1516 last year.
Storm-1516 typically creates an account on social media that gets tapped into the far-right network. It then spreads fake information to dupe users into sharing stories they believe come from whistleblowers or citizen journalists. Linvill says they often utilize X and YouTube to place stories.
Much of this traces back to John Dougan, an ex-Floridian cop who now works with the Kremlin to spread disinformation. Dougan helped spread the initial false claims about Walz, appearing with an anonymous man, “Rick,” who claims to be a former student. Dougan runs numerous fake news websites used by Storm-1516.
“We believe that it might be a coordinated campaign in [an] attempt to bring numerous false accusations of the same nature against Tim Walz through different channels and in different formats in order to bring an image of legitimacy to the narrative,” said Alex Liberty, a researcher tracking Russian disinformation.
A common trend with all of these efforts is that none of them have any evidence to back them up. They are often easy to debunk by either analyzing the videos or by reaching out to the alleged parties involved. NewsGuard, for instance, debunked Dougan’s claim with “Rick” shortly after it was publicized.
McKenzie Sadeghi, AI and foreign influence editor at NewsGuard, said of the deepfake video, “The false narrative appears to be part of a wider campaign pushed by pro-Kremlin media and QAnon influencers ahead of the November 5, 2024, US elections aimed at portraying Walz, whose political appeal is as an everyman schoolteacher and coach, as a pedophile who had inappropriate relationships with minors.”
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