Analysis shows free speech, border security, Elon Musk were top subjects of content creators allegedly ensnared by Russian scheme

After a DOJ indictment against two employees of RT who are alleged to have been funneling money to Tennessee-based Tenet Media, Wired conducted an analysis of the work that had been reportedly funded with Russian state media cash. What they found was that the videos covered topics such as "free speech, illegal immigrants, diversity in video games, supposed racism toward white people, and Elon Musk."

"The content of these videos was described by prosecutors as 'consistent' with Russia’s aim of sowing political discord in the US. Among the areas covered: free speech, illegal immigrants, diversity in video games, supposed racism toward white people, and Elon Musk," Wired reports.

Tenet had contracted independent media creators, paying them large sums of money to essentially license their work and share it on Tenet channels. Those creators say that, contractually, they had full editorial control over their work. The DOJ names those creators as victims, saying that the creators were not aware that Tenet Media founders Lauren Chen and her husband Liam Davidson had used $9.7 million in Russian funding to launch their media company and pay for content. Tim Pool, one of the content creators along with Benny Johnson, Dave Rubin, Matt Christiensen, Taylor Hansen and Lauren Southern, has spoken out since the indictment, confirming that he, and the others, were victims of the plot. Pool's show, The Culture War, was an existing property prior to his contracting with Tenet to sponsor the show.

Wired analyzed the content that was created, reporting that they "downloaded the closed captioning transcripts from 405 longform videos posted on Tenet’s Youtube channel and used natural language processing to identify common themes." Those phrases that they say most appeared were "white people," "black people," "civil war," "free speech," "Secret Service," "illegal immigrants," "Second Amendment," and "Elon Musk." These are frequent topics of news conversation in the United States.


Wired analysis

The two-word phrases used, from most to least, per the Wired analysis, were Supreme Court, United States, Secret Service, TikTok, law enforcement, White House, federal government, white people, free speech, First Amendment, San Francisco, illegal immigrants, Matt [Christiansen], America first, Elon Musk, black people, never seen, high school, Second Amendment, civil war, viral videos, Biden administration, thanks [Tenet], original content, Nikki Haley, Hunter Biden, mean look, Border Patrol, mental health, Washington Post, court decision, world war, birth control, Daily Wire, police officers, real life, National Guard, [Fani] Willis, Justice Department, [Tenet] social, Democratic Party, fake news, hate speech, sweet baby, Washington, DC, and social security. In other words, topics in line with the news cycle over the past several months.

Wired also found that their "analysis does not show that in these videos the influencers were particularly fixated on the Ukraine war." The word Ukraine appears 67 times in the videos. The US has been backing Ukraine in their fight to keep Russia at bay after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

The DOJ also seized 32 internet domains last week. As alleged in the affidavit of the seizure, the Russian entities are accused of using domains "to covertly spread Russian government propaganda with the aim of reducing international support for Ukraine, bolstering pro-Russian policies and interests, and influencing voters in US and foreign elections, including the US 2024 Presidential Election." Wired asserts that the primary aim of the Russian government's alleged funding of US media is in an effort "to exploit culture war topics for its own ends, with the primary aim being the election of Donald Trump."

"An internal planning document created by the Kremlin states that a goal of the campaign is to secure Russia's preferred outcome in the election," Attorney General Merrick Garland said. "The sites we are seizing today were filled with Russian government propaganda that had been created by the Kremlin to reduce international support for Ukraine, bolster pro-Russian policies and interests, and influence voters in the United States and other countries." Putin later appeared to endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for president. He appeared to be trolling America with this statement.

Editors from The Post Millennial have appeared frequently on Tim Pool's Timcast IRL.