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SouthFront

January 01, 1970

SouthFront (sometimes written South Front) is a multilingual website registered in Russia and based in Crimea.[1] It has been accused by multiple sources of being an outlet for disinformation and propaganda under the control of the Russian government. For this reason, it has been sanctioned by the US Treasury and banned by social media platforms.

SouthFront
Type of site
News agency
Founded2015
Headquarters
Crimea
Area servedWorldwide
IndustryNews media
URLhttps://southfront.press/

History edit

In 2014, Radio Free Europe, reported: "The English-language Facebook page for South Front, which has slightly more than 11,500 subscribers, is a mix of carefully selected 'news' from the region -- usually from sources like LifeNews, a video news outlet believed to have ties to Russia's security services -- and anti-Ukrainian and anti-Western memes."[2] They described SouthFront as "a group supporting pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine."[2]

Writing in 2019, the European Union's East StratCom Task Force analyzed site meta-data and reported, "South Front is registered in Russia, money donated to the site goes to Russia and the editor is named Anastasia. But the most compelling evidence for South Front’s being Russian is in the content...South Front is loyally relaying whatever suits the Kremlin, pretending not to be Russian."[3] Two days after that report appeared, SouthFront anonymized their videos, removing Russian text that had listed the name of their video editor as "Natasha."[4]

In April 2020, Facebook and Twitter deleted many pages and accounts they said were linked to "Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior" by Russian actors, mentioning South Front as having "pushed misleading articles, questioning the results of the 2020 presidential election and the efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines."[5] According to EU vs Disinfo, however, both SouthFront and Crimea-based Newsfront were able to evade much of the Facebook effort.[6][7]

In February 2022, Meta (formerly Facebook, Inc.) took action against both SouthFront and NewsFront, for a new round of deceptive activity.[5] The Facebook report said that a network of fake accounts claiming to be people from Kyiv amplified content from "websites masquerading as independent news outlets, publishing claims about the West betraying Ukraine and Ukraine being a failed state."[8]

In 2022, the US Treasury department said, "Although it previously focused on the 2020 U.S. presidential election, SouthFront has also spread information suggesting that Ukraine or NATO could use chemical weapons within the country with hopes to blame it on Russia."[9]

In August 2023, domain southfront.org "was took down (domain delegation was removed) on the international level without any advance notice and explanation."[10] The web then changed its domain to southfront.press.[11]

Disinformation and propaganda edit

In 2016, Finnish journalist Jessikka Aro writing in Springer Link described SouthFront as "an allegedly citizen-sourced project that looks more like a suspicious information operation." Describing it as "a fascinating hybrid of revealingly detailed military intelligence and totally bogus stories," she said that the site's content centers on "the success of Russia's armed forces, and showing off Russia's weapons."[12]

In 2017, researchers at Oxford University's Internet Institute studied the collaboration of SouthFront with two US-based fascist fake news sites, Veterans Today and its sister site Veterans News Now.[13][14]

Philip N. Howard, one of the paper's coauthors, told McClatchy DC that the three websites underlay "an entire ecosystem of junk news about national security issues that is deliberately crafted for U.S. veterans and active military personnel...a complex blend of content with a Russian view of the world – wild rumors and conspiracies."[15] The Oxford researchers concluded that the three sites were more successful on Twitter than on Facebook, saying "on Twitter there are significant and persistent interactions between current and former military personnel and a broad network of Russia-focused accounts, conspiracy theory focused accounts, and European right-wing accounts."[13] SouthFront representatives responded to a Politico story about the Oxford study with an email saying they had no connection to Russia's government, adding that describing them as part of a Kremlin network was "contrary to the principles of freedom of speech and .. discriminatory against Russians."[14]

In 2020, the US State Department described SouthFront as part of Russia's "disinformation and propaganda ecosystem," where Russian state actors team with others whose connection to Russia was less clear, in order to get wide attention for their ideas. According to the State Department report, SouthFront "combines Kremlin talking points with detailed knowledge of military systems and ongoing conflicts and attempts to appeal to military enthusiasts, veterans, and conspiracy theorists."[16]

In 2021 and again in 2022, the US Treasury announced sanctions against SouthFront, calling it in 2021 "an online disinformation site registered in Russia that...attempts to appeal to military enthusiasts, veterans, and conspiracy theorists, all while going to great lengths to hide its connections to Russian intelligence."[17][9]

In April 2021, the Southern Poverty Law Center reported that far-right conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec had tweeted 28 links to SouthFront between November 2019 and August 2020. In return, SouthFront promoted Posobiec as well, and cited his tweets in their posts.[18]

The 2022 US Treasury report alleged that SouthFront was sanctioned in part for being "owned or controlled by, or for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, the FSB" which is Russia's successor to Soviet Union's KGB.[9]

References edit

  1. ^ Lomas, Natasha (February 28, 2022). "As EU says it'll ban Russia's 'toxic media machine', social media firms face pressure to act". TechCrunch. Retrieved July 1, 2023.
  2. ^ a b "Pro-Russian Separatist Supporters Seek Western Support On Social Media". Radio Free Europe. June 29, 2014. "South Front," a group supporting pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine. The video, which begins with an unsubstantiated claim that "mass murder of civilians [by the Ukrainian Army] continues," is part of a growing effort by separatist supporters to expand their reach beyond Russian-speakers.
  3. ^ "South Front - Russia hiding being Russian". EU vs Disinfo. April 8, 2019. Retrieved March 8, 2022. South Front is registered in Russia, money, donated to the site goes to Russia and the editor is named Anastasia. But the most compelling evidence for South Front's being Russian is in the content. South Front is not an alternative website, challenging the mainstream, corporate media. South Front is loyally relaying whatever suits the Kremlin, pretending not to be Russian.
  4. ^ "Closet Russian site hides revealing metadata". EU vs Disinfo. May 15, 2019. Retrieved March 11, 2022. South Front is a Russian site. All this could be discovered through open resources for checking meta-data. Nothing secret, nothing strange. You don't need to be employing the EU Super Secret Super Mega Computer to perform a whois-search.
  5. ^ a b Collins, Ben; Kent, Jo Link (February 27, 2022). "Facebook, Twitter remove disinformation accounts targeting Ukrainians". NBC News. Retrieved February 27, 2022. Facebook removed profiles related to News Front and South Front in 2020, and the company confirmed to NBC News that the new group shared connections to the accounts that were previously banned. Both websites have pushed misleading articles, questioning the results of the 2020 presidential election and the efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines. The State Department identified the websites as Russian disinformation outlets in a 2020 report.
  6. ^ "All quiet on the Newsfront? Part 1". EU vs Disinfo. April 20, 2021. Retrieved March 10, 2022. Our findings show that following Facebook's takedown in April 2020, Facebook traffic to these sites has fallen somewhat. But this decline was part of a broader trend in falling social media traffic that did not neatly correspond to Facebook's actions in April. These sites maintained their overall levels of traffic with growth from direct traffic, such as users typing website addresses directly into their browsers or, perhaps more likely, sharing links with messaging apps and search engines....
  7. ^ "All quiet on the Newsfront? Part 2". EU vs Disinfo. April 21, 2021. Retrieved March 10, 2022. What stood out in our research was the fact that in 2020 the number of SouthFront links added to Wikipedia increased by 397%, and most links were added after the takedown (especially in the second half of the year). Most of the links added to Wikipedia concerned conflicts in the Middle East..
  8. ^ "Updates on Our Security Work in Ukraine". Meta. February 27, 2022. Retrieved March 13, 2022. This network used fake accounts and operated fictitious personas and brands across the internet — including on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Telegram, Odnoklassniki and VK — to appear more authentic in an apparent attempt to withstand scrutiny by platforms and researchers...They claimed to be based in Kyiv...This operation ran a handful of websites masquerading as independent news outlets, publishing claims about the West betraying Ukraine and Ukraine being a failed state.
  9. ^ a b c "Treasury Sanctions Russians Bankrolling Putin and Russia-Backed Influence Actors". United States Department of the Treasury. March 3, 2022. Retrieved March 6, 2022. SouthFront is a disinformation site that receives taskings from the FSB. Following the 2020 U.S. presidential election, SouthFront sought to promote perceptions of voter fraud during the 2020 U.S. presidential election cycle, and was designated pursuant to E.O. 13848, E.O. 13694, as amended, and E.O. 13382 on April 15, 2021, for having engaged in foreign interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election and being owned or controlled by, or for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, the FSB.
  10. ^ "SouthFront: Analysis & Intelligence". Telegram. Retrieved 2023-08-18.
  11. ^ Article about old domain block and the new domain (Aug. 18, 2023)
  12. ^ Aro, Jessikka (24 May 2016). "An allegedly citizen-sourced project that looks more like a suspicious information operation". European View. 15 (1). Springer Link: 121–132. doi:10.1007/s12290-016-0395-5. S2CID 148543831.
  13. ^ a b "Junk News on Military Affairs and National Security: Social Media Disinformation Campaigns Against US Military Personnel and Veterans" (PDF). Oxford Democracy and Technology Programme. October 9, 2017. Retrieved March 10, 2022. In late 2013 Veterans Today began publishing content from the government-charted Russian Academy of Sciences geopolitical journal New Eastern Outlook. At a similar time, its sister site, Veterans News Now, began publishing content from the Moscow think tank Strategic Culture Foundation. Similarly, the website South Front, was registered in Moscow in early 2015 and partnered with Veterans Today later that year.
  14. ^ a b Schreckinger, Ben (June 12, 2017). "How Russia Targets the U.S. Military". Politico. Retrieved March 10, 2022. In October 2015, Veterans Today also partnered with a slickly designed, anonymously authored military affairs website called South Front that had been registered in Moscow that April just as Russia was ramping up its influence operations in response to Western sanctions.
  15. ^ "Russian propaganda engaged U.S. vets, troops on Twitter and Facebook, study finds". McClatchy DC. October 9, 2017. Retrieved March 10, 2022. The Oxford University study, which traced the reach of three websites with clear ties to the Russian government, adds a new dimension to revelations of a Kremlin cyber campaign aimed at undermining Americans' trust in democracy during last year's U.S. elections and helping Donald Trump win the presidency.
  16. ^ "GEC Special Report: August 2020: Pillars of Russia's Disinformation and Propaganda Ecosystem" (PDF). United States Department of State. 2020. Retrieved March 8, 2022. SouthFront: Analysis and Intelligence (a.k.a. SouthFront), is a multilingual online disinformation site registered in Russia that focuses on military and security issues. With flashy infographics, maps, and videos, SouthFront combines Kremlin talking points with detailed knowledge of military systems and ongoing conflicts. It attempts to appeal to military enthusiasts, veterans, and conspiracy theorists, all while going to great lengths to hide its connections to Russia.
  17. ^ "Treasury Escalates Sanctions Against the Russian Government's Attempts to Influence U.S. Elections". United States Department of the Treasury. April 15, 2021. Retrieved February 27, 2022. Russian Intelligence Services, namely the Federal Security Service (FSB)...directly operates disinformation outlets. SouthFront is an online disinformation site registered in Russia that receives taskings from the FSB. It attempts to appeal to military enthusiasts, veterans, and conspiracy theorists, all while going to great lengths to hide its connections to Russian intelligence. In the aftermath of the 2020 U.S. presidential election, SouthFront sought to promote perceptions of voter fraud by publishing content alleging that such activity took place during the 2020 U.S. presidential election cycle.
  18. ^ Hayden, Michael Edison (April 28, 2021). "Jack Posobiec Links to Russian Intelligence-Backed Website". Southern Poverty Law Center. Retrieved 2022-11-24.

Further reading edit

  • "Junk News on Military Affairs and National Security: Social Media Disinformation Campaigns Against US Military Personnel and Veterans." John D. Gallacher, Vlad Barash, Philip N. Howard, and John Kelly. Data Memo 2017.9. Oxford, UK: Project on Computational Propaganda.

January 01, 1970
southfront, sometimes, written, south, front, multilingual, website, registered, russia, based, crimea, been, accused, multiple, sources, being, outlet, disinformation, propaganda, under, control, russian, government, this, reason, been, sanctioned, treasury, . SouthFront sometimes written South Front is a multilingual website registered in Russia and based in Crimea 1 It has been accused by multiple sources of being an outlet for disinformation and propaganda under the control of the Russian government For this reason it has been sanctioned by the US Treasury and banned by social media platforms SouthFrontType of siteNews agencyFounded2015HeadquartersCrimeaArea servedWorldwideIndustryNews mediaURLhttps southfront press Contents 1 History 2 Disinformation and propaganda 3 References 4 Further readingHistory editIn 2014 Radio Free Europe reported The English language Facebook page for South Front which has slightly more than 11 500 subscribers is a mix of carefully selected news from the region usually from sources like LifeNews a video news outlet believed to have ties to Russia s security services and anti Ukrainian and anti Western memes 2 They described SouthFront as a group supporting pro Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine 2 Writing in 2019 the European Union s East StratCom Task Force analyzed site meta data and reported South Front is registered in Russia money donated to the site goes to Russia and the editor is named Anastasia But the most compelling evidence for South Front s being Russian is in the content South Front is loyally relaying whatever suits the Kremlin pretending not to be Russian 3 Two days after that report appeared SouthFront anonymized their videos removing Russian text that had listed the name of their video editor as Natasha 4 In April 2020 Facebook and Twitter deleted many pages and accounts they said were linked to Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior by Russian actors mentioning South Front as having pushed misleading articles questioning the results of the 2020 presidential election and the efficacy of Covid 19 vaccines 5 According to EU vs Disinfo however both SouthFront and Crimea based Newsfront were able to evade much of the Facebook effort 6 7 In February 2022 Meta formerly Facebook Inc took action against both SouthFront and NewsFront for a new round of deceptive activity 5 The Facebook report said that a network of fake accounts claiming to be people from Kyiv amplified content from websites masquerading as independent news outlets publishing claims about the West betraying Ukraine and Ukraine being a failed state 8 In 2022 the US Treasury department said Although it previously focused on the 2020 U S presidential election SouthFront has also spread information suggesting that Ukraine or NATO could use chemical weapons within the country with hopes to blame it on Russia 9 In August 2023 domain southfront org was took down domain delegation was removed on the international level without any advance notice and explanation 10 The web then changed its domain to southfront press 11 Disinformation and propaganda editIn 2016 Finnish journalist Jessikka Aro writing in Springer Link described SouthFront as an allegedly citizen sourced project that looks more like a suspicious information operation Describing it as a fascinating hybrid of revealingly detailed military intelligence and totally bogus stories she said that the site s content centers on the success of Russia s armed forces and showing off Russia s weapons 12 In 2017 researchers at Oxford University s Internet Institute studied the collaboration of SouthFront with two US based fascist fake news sites Veterans Today and its sister site Veterans News Now 13 14 Philip N Howard one of the paper s coauthors told McClatchy DC that the three websites underlay an entire ecosystem of junk news about national security issues that is deliberately crafted for U S veterans and active military personnel a complex blend of content with a Russian view of the world wild rumors and conspiracies 15 The Oxford researchers concluded that the three sites were more successful on Twitter than on Facebook saying on Twitter there are significant and persistent interactions between current and former military personnel and a broad network of Russia focused accounts conspiracy theory focused accounts and European right wing accounts 13 SouthFront representatives responded to a Politico story about the Oxford study with an email saying they had no connection to Russia s government adding that describing them as part of a Kremlin network was contrary to the principles of freedom of speech and discriminatory against Russians 14 In 2020 the US State Department described SouthFront as part of Russia s disinformation and propaganda ecosystem where Russian state actors team with others whose connection to Russia was less clear in order to get wide attention for their ideas According to the State Department report SouthFront combines Kremlin talking points with detailed knowledge of military systems and ongoing conflicts and attempts to appeal to military enthusiasts veterans and conspiracy theorists 16 In 2021 and again in 2022 the US Treasury announced sanctions against SouthFront calling it in 2021 an online disinformation site registered in Russia that attempts to appeal to military enthusiasts veterans and conspiracy theorists all while going to great lengths to hide its connections to Russian intelligence 17 9 In April 2021 the Southern Poverty Law Center reported that far right conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec had tweeted 28 links to SouthFront between November 2019 and August 2020 In return SouthFront promoted Posobiec as well and cited his tweets in their posts 18 The 2022 US Treasury report alleged that SouthFront was sanctioned in part for being owned or controlled by or for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of directly or indirectly the FSB which is Russia s successor to Soviet Union s KGB 9 References edit Lomas Natasha February 28 2022 As EU says it ll ban Russia s toxic media machine social media firms face pressure to act TechCrunch Retrieved July 1 2023 a b Pro Russian Separatist Supporters Seek Western Support On Social Media Radio Free Europe June 29 2014 South Front a group supporting pro Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine The video which begins with an unsubstantiated claim that mass murder of civilians by the Ukrainian Army continues is part of a growing effort by separatist supporters to expand their reach beyond Russian speakers South Front Russia hiding being Russian EU vs Disinfo April 8 2019 Retrieved March 8 2022 South Front is registered in Russia money donated to the site goes to Russia and the editor is named Anastasia But the most compelling evidence for South Front s being Russian is in the content South Front is not an alternative website challenging the mainstream corporate media South Front is loyally relaying whatever suits the Kremlin pretending not to be Russian Closet Russian site hides revealing metadata EU vs Disinfo May 15 2019 Retrieved March 11 2022 South Front is a Russian site All this could be discovered through open resources for checking meta data Nothing secret nothing strange You don t need to be employing the EU Super Secret Super Mega Computer to perform a whois search a b Collins Ben Kent Jo Link February 27 2022 Facebook Twitter remove disinformation accounts targeting Ukrainians NBC News Retrieved February 27 2022 Facebook removed profiles related to News Front and South Front in 2020 and the company confirmed to NBC News that the new group shared connections to the accounts that were previously banned Both websites have pushed misleading articles questioning the results of the 2020 presidential election and the efficacy of Covid 19 vaccines The State Department identified the websites as Russian disinformation outlets in a 2020 report All quiet on the Newsfront Part 1 EU vs Disinfo April 20 2021 Retrieved March 10 2022 Our findings show that following Facebook s takedown in April 2020 Facebook traffic to these sites has fallen somewhat But this decline was part of a broader trend in falling social media traffic that did not neatly correspond to Facebook s actions in April These sites maintained their overall levels of traffic with growth from direct traffic such as users typing website addresses directly into their browsers or perhaps more likely sharing links with messaging apps and search engines All quiet on the Newsfront Part 2 EU vs Disinfo April 21 2021 Retrieved March 10 2022 What stood out in our research was the fact that in 2020 the number of SouthFront links added to Wikipedia increased by 397 and most links were added after the takedown especially in the second half of the year Most of the links added to Wikipedia concerned conflicts in the Middle East Updates on Our Security Work in Ukraine Meta February 27 2022 Retrieved March 13 2022 This network used fake accounts and operated fictitious personas and brands across the internet including on Facebook Instagram Twitter YouTube Telegram Odnoklassniki and VK to appear more authentic in an apparent attempt to withstand scrutiny by platforms and researchers They claimed to be based in Kyiv This operation ran a handful of websites masquerading as independent news outlets publishing claims about the West betraying Ukraine and Ukraine being a failed state a b c Treasury Sanctions Russians Bankrolling Putin and Russia Backed Influence Actors United States Department of the Treasury March 3 2022 Retrieved March 6 2022 SouthFront is a disinformation site that receives taskings from the FSB Following the 2020 U S presidential election SouthFront sought to promote perceptions of voter fraud during the 2020 U S presidential election cycle and was designated pursuant to E O 13848 E O 13694 as amended and E O 13382 on April 15 2021 for having engaged in foreign interference in the 2020 U S presidential election and being owned or controlled by or for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of directly or indirectly the FSB SouthFront Analysis amp Intelligence Telegram Retrieved 2023 08 18 Article about old domain block and the new domain Aug 18 2023 Aro Jessikka 24 May 2016 An allegedly citizen sourced project that looks more like a suspicious information operation European View 15 1 Springer Link 121 132 doi 10 1007 s12290 016 0395 5 S2CID 148543831 a b Junk News on Military Affairs and National Security Social Media Disinformation Campaigns Against US Military Personnel and Veterans PDF Oxford Democracy and Technology Programme October 9 2017 Retrieved March 10 2022 In late 2013 Veterans Today began publishing content from the government charted Russian Academy of Sciences geopolitical journal New Eastern Outlook At a similar time its sister site Veterans News Now began publishing content from the Moscow think tank Strategic Culture Foundation Similarly the website South Front was registered in Moscow in early 2015 and partnered with Veterans Today later that year a b Schreckinger Ben June 12 2017 How Russia Targets the U S Military Politico Retrieved March 10 2022 In October 2015 Veterans Today also partnered with a slickly designed anonymously authored military affairs website called South Front that had been registered in Moscow that April just as Russia was ramping up its influence operations in response to Western sanctions Russian propaganda engaged U S vets troops on Twitter and Facebook study finds McClatchy DC October 9 2017 Retrieved March 10 2022 The Oxford University study which traced the reach of three websites with clear ties to the Russian government adds a new dimension to revelations of a Kremlin cyber campaign aimed at undermining Americans trust in democracy during last year s U S elections and helping Donald Trump win the presidency GEC Special Report August 2020 Pillars of Russia s Disinformation and Propaganda Ecosystem PDF United States Department of State 2020 Retrieved March 8 2022 SouthFront Analysis and Intelligence a k a SouthFront is a multilingual online disinformation site registered in Russia that focuses on military and security issues With flashy infographics maps and videos SouthFront combines Kremlin talking points with detailed knowledge of military systems and ongoing conflicts It attempts to appeal to military enthusiasts veterans and conspiracy theorists all while going to great lengths to hide its connections to Russia Treasury Escalates Sanctions Against the Russian Government s Attempts to Influence U S Elections United States Department of the Treasury April 15 2021 Retrieved February 27 2022 Russian Intelligence Services namely the Federal Security Service FSB directly operates disinformation outlets SouthFront is an online disinformation site registered in Russia that receives taskings from the FSB It attempts to appeal to military enthusiasts veterans and conspiracy theorists all while going to great lengths to hide its connections to Russian intelligence In the aftermath of the 2020 U S presidential election SouthFront sought to promote perceptions of voter fraud by publishing content alleging that such activity took place during the 2020 U S presidential election cycle Hayden Michael Edison April 28 2021 Jack Posobiec Links to Russian Intelligence Backed Website Southern Poverty Law Center Retrieved 2022 11 24 Further reading edit Junk News on Military Affairs and National Security Social Media Disinformation Campaigns Against US Military Personnel and Veterans John D Gallacher Vlad Barash Philip N Howard and John Kelly Data Memo 2017 9 Oxford UK Project on Computational Propaganda Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title SouthFront amp oldid 1216932881, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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