The video alleges that the US International Development Agency falsely claims that Ben Stiller, Angelina Jolie and other actors have paid millions of dollars to travel to Ukraine.
In fact, the video first surfaced on X with a post from an account that researchers said was spreading disinformation in Russia.
Within hours it attracted the attention of Elon Musk, who reposted it. So did President Trump's son Donald Trump Jr.
They amplified false videos as Musk forced the Crusades to close USAID, an agency that has been distributing most of the government's foreign aid since 1961. Others in the administration took over the agency's headquarters, took over the freeze grants, and notified that almost all of their employees would be fired.
The dismantling of the agency was accompanied by a torrent of anger from right-wing influencers and accounts promoting false claims and conspiratorial thinking.
While some politicians and voters have long questioned the value of foreign aid, those attacking institutions often distort and care about the facts, or unconsciously, justify the targets of USAID. It is accepted as a true thing that helps to
That includes Musk himself, who used the platform he took over as a megaphone in 2022 in an effort to reduce federal bureaucracy. On Sunday, Musk called it a “criminal organisation,” but explained the basis for such accusations.
“He exploits ignorance about the mechanisms of government and the lack of surveillance for what he is doing,” said Mike Rothschild, author of The Jewish Space Laser, a book on conspiracy theory. . “It's all very dangerous and is happening right in front of our eyes.”
The gusts of the attack also highlighted the increasing convergence of Republican views of propaganda emanating from the Kremlin and narratives that are in line with international goals, particularly Musk's platform. According to the Clemson University Media Forensic Hub, the false videos about celebrities appeared to be from an influential campaign that produced dozens of similar fakes about the Russian war in Ukraine.
“Russian anti-Ukraine propaganda is thoroughly infiltrating certain communities in X,” says researcher Darren L. Linville, through a network of accounts that previously distributed Russian fakes. , tracked the spread of fake clips from the origin of X.
“Given how much time Musk will spend on his platform, Dr. Linville said:
Neither Musk nor Donald Trump Jr. responded immediately to requests for comment.
X did not immediately respond to requests for comments regarding the spread of misinformation about USAID on the platform, but added a note to a post that shares a video about the actor.
Much of this week's Frenzy Online focuses on many grants from USAID, with information that has been published for years.
For example, one virus claim started after an account with X, which has over half a million followers, suggesting that Washington news website Politico has received more than $8 million from USAID.
That was not true. The website received subscription revenue of approximately $44,000 from USAID for its two-year premium environmental and energy publishing subscriptions and over $8 million in subscriptions from various institutions, including the Department of Energy.
Still, the claims were fired rapidly across social media as influencers and politicians with more followers amplified the ideas.
It sparked other misleading claims that USAID would grant money to the BBC and the New York Times. (Instead, they gave money to independent charities that share their names with the BBC. The most viral claims about the New York Times include grants such as groups of unrelated but similar groups. It was based on an inaccurate search of records. New York University. The Times stated that it is a payment for a subscription. Beneficiaries of government programs or grants.)
The facts were unable to reach a considerable audience online, but the misinformation rose within hours by well-known podcasters, politicians and Trump's allies.
The explanation dedicated to sharing conspiracy theory said the claim was evidence that Democrats used USAID to fund “fake news empires.”
By Wednesday afternoon, Hungarian Prime Minister and authoritarian leader Viktor Orban reflected swirling claims in the US, with payments to Politico funding “basically the entire Hungarian left-wing media.” It writes: Over 26 million views.
The idea quickly spread to an oval office, and Trump used his true social account to make government news subscriptions (payments that also occurred during his first presidency) “good about Democrats He criticized the “in return” for creating a story.
“This could be the biggest scandal for all of them, and perhaps the biggest scandal in history!” he wrote in an all-cap Thursday morning as other users requested a criminal investigation.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has announced that the administration will cancel all Politico subscriptions. On Thursday, the Agriculture Department said it had cancelled its political subscription.
For Russia and China, the US conservative turmoil over USAID has come across astonishing joy.
Both countries reflect Orban's complaints and blame the agency for supporting their country's destructive programs.
Chen Waifa, a prominent director and columnist for the state news agency China Daily, cited a report on the agency's funding as evidence of China's previous claims. He suggested that Chinese BBC reporters were “all acquired” by the Central Intelligence Agency and the UK's Secret Service MI6.
“If you have the question of why BBC reporters in China continue to paint China all year and speak BS, you might find the answer now,” he wrote to X.
Russian President Vladimir V. Putin banned USAID grants in 2012, expelling government workers, and accusing the US of funding his rules to opposers. (Officers from the Republican and Democratic administrations argue that the program simply promoted Russian civil society.)
Maria Zakharava, a spokesman for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, laughed at a series of grants criticised in the US, cited the protests in Egypt in 2011 and the protests in Ukraine in 2014. It argued that it was to promote political uprisings and cite protests from 2014, 2014, and Ukrainians. Last year in Georgia.
This week, the false video claiming that USAID-funded celebrity travel was fit for overseas travel, has been a recurring Russian remark that the US supports Ukraine with resources rather than spending time at home. It fits the story.
According to Clemson's Media Forensic Hub, the video appeared to be a work of an impact campaign known to researchers as the Overload of Operations or Matrioshka after the Russian Nest Doll. The work is led by private companies with links to the Kremlin.
The footage showed photos and clips of many famous actors meeting Ukrainian leader Voldimi Zelensky, but the narrator with British accents said the actor paid a massive amount from USAID for appearances. He claimed he had received it.
Narrator Jolie says she received $20 million. Orlando Bloom, $8 million. Sean Penn, $5 million. and so on. “This was done to increase Zelensky's popularity, especially among foreign audiences in the United States,” the narrator argues. “The involvement of celebrities allowed us to easily coordinate Ukrainian fundraising programmes during the conflict.”
After the video was published on the X account, articles on the claims were published on the sites of at least two Russian news organizations, Tsargrad and Pravda. The video was featured by many accounts who previously shared Russian disinformation, but soon expanded beyond that to Americans rooting for the Trump administration. By Thursday, users of Tiktok and Trump's True Social Platform had been sharing the video as commenters expressed their anger and called for USAID to be eliminated.
There is no evidence of payment in any of the institution's programs. E! A News spokesman said in a statement: “The video was not authentic and didn't come from E! News.”
Actor Ben Stiller was reportedly paid $4 million for a visit to Ukraine and took him to social media to refute the claim. “These are lies from the Russian media,” he writes to X. There was no funding from USAID and certainly no payment of any kind. ”
Anyway, Musk's more conspirators continue to support the billionaire.
They include foodservice workers and Army National Guard veterans who were accused of launching a conspiracy theories about the Ukraine's American Bioweapons Institute. In attacking USAID, he wrote in a post on X and Telegram this week, so Musk exposed “Orwell's dystopia” by detailing the agency's supposed support for the media.
“We live on the foundation of lies,” he said.
