00:00How are pro-Russian actors fuelling fake bylines and sham news stories?
00:08Journalists are finding their names on stories they never wrote,
00:11while sham news sites bearing names which resemble legitimate outlets are cropping up online.
00:16This fits into a propaganda strategy orchestrated by pro-Russian disinformation actors,
00:22some of which are part of Russia's Storm 1516 operation.
00:25These operations are trying to give weight to the claims that they are putting out.
00:33And sometimes they also try to reach out to fact-checkers and other journalists,
00:40using these names and logos to make them believe that some information of importance needs to be verified.
00:51French journalist Romain Fiaschetti discovered his byline in a series of articles
00:57published on the now suspended Courrier France 24 website.
01:01One article falsely alleged that French nuclear waste company Orano
01:05was secretly bribing Armenian officials to dispose of France's waste.
01:10The website The EU Insider used my name to publish a story about
01:14Moldovan President Maya Sandu claiming that she embezzled US ID funds.
01:18Of course, I've written about corruption, about politics in Romania, about Moldova a number of times,
01:24especially since they had this big election.
01:27I guess that's why they chose my name, because they saw someone who wrote about politics in English.
01:33Check First, which tracks disinformation and foreign influence operations,
01:37has been urging journalists to take legal action,
01:40as well as to pressure platforms to remove false content.
01:43The EU Insider used to be a part of the EU Insider for the EU Insider for the EU Insider for the EU Insider for the EU Insider for the EU Insider for the EU Insider.
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