Breitbart, other 'alt-right' websites are the darlings of Russian propaganda effort

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news...darlings-russian-propaganda-effort/598258001/
Amid an investigation into Russian meddling in the last U.S. presidential election, a Russian propaganda Twitter network aimed at American audiences consistently spreads links to Breitbart and other right-wing or conspiracy theory websites that boost President Trump and bash Democrats.

The websites — which include True Pundit, the Gateway Pundit and Imperialist U — are regular features on the list of “Top Domains” pushed by a network of 600 Twitter accounts followed by the German Marshall Fund of the United States, which tracks a Russian disinformation and propaganda campaign focused on U.S. voters.

On Thursday, the most popular domains mentioned by the network in the previous 48 hours, according to the tracker, included True Pundit, the Russian government-controlled television network RT, the Gateway Pundit, Fox News, Russian government news agency Sputnik News and Breitbart.

The network’s main role is to amplify messages deemed to benefit the Kremlin, but that doesn’t mean the websites' authors share the same goals, said Laura Rosenberger, director of the Alliance for Securing Democracy, which created the monitoring project for the fund.
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“Just being shared by Kremlin information operations does not mean they are part of the Kremlin’s disinformation operations,” Rosenberger said. “It just means something on these sites, or a lot of things on these sites, is either advancing a message the Kremlin is trying to push or that it is trying to discredit.”

Alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election and possible collusion with the Trump campaign is the focus of an investigation by special prosecutor Robert Mueller.

The Gateway Pundit’s founder Jim Hoft called the project a “far-left smear site” of the Marshall Fund, a nonprofit group that promotes transatlantic cooperation.

“It’s complete rubbish. ... The (fund) website’s real purpose is to smear websites supportive of Donald Trump and his accomplishments as Russian propaganda,” Hoft said in an email. “Of course, we have no connection to the Russians nor have we ever had any contact with any Russian officials.”

Hoft did not deny that the Russians amplify his message, but asserted that the Russian government-controlled television network RT tends to cover more anti-American far-left stories and personalities than those about conservative Trump supporters.
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