A decade after its untimely demise and countless clones later, the original Flappy Bird is coming back. Under the banner of the Flappy Bird Foundation, some dedicated fans acquired the rights to the viral mobile hit, per a press release. Flappy Bird will return to iOS and Android as native mobile apps in 2025. But you'll be able to play it elsewhere before then. The team is planning to bring the game to other platforms, such as desktop and the mobile web, starting this fall.
The Flappy Bird Foundation has some big plans for the revived title, and it showed off some of those in a trailer. While maintaining the original game design is key, you can also expect new modes, characters, progression and multiplayer challenges.
A blend of difficult gameplay and a crude art style (including pipes that seemed very inspired by Mario games) helped Flappy Bird become a sensation. The challenge posed by tapping the screen to flap the bird’s wings and squeeze through gaps between pipes caught the imagination of legions of gamers — more than 100 million of them, according to the Flappy Bird Foundation.
Flappy Bird debuted in May 2013 but it didn't blow up until the following January. Developer Dong Nguyen soon revealed that the game was raking in $50,000 per day from advertising. However, Flappy Bird's success was all too much for its creator. Nguyen removed it from the App Store and Google Play in February 2014 for seemingly altruistic reasons (though he brought another version to Amazon Fire TV later that year).
“Flappy Bird was designed to play in a few minutes when you are relaxed,” he told Forbes. “But it happened to become an addictive product. I think it has become a problem. To solve that problem, it's best to take down Flappy Bird. It's gone forever." Thankfully for fans (but maybe not people who were reselling old phones with the original game still installed), "forever" isn't necessarily permanent.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/flappy-bird-is-finally-returning-10-years-after-its-demise-142756765.html?src=rss
With even Fox News and senior Republican figures admitting that Vice President Kamala Harris won Tuesday night’s presidential debate, some supporters of former president Donald Trump are desperately seeking crumbs of comfort. Cue the predictable conspiracy theories.
A frequent refrain that has emerged from conservatives (but curiously, not Democrats) over the last decade or so is that their guy's opponent was wearing an earpiece during debates. These baseless accusations were slung at President Joe Biden in 2020, at Hillary Clinton in 2016 and at Barack Obama in 2012. The theory was debunked on each occasion.
In Harris’ case, conspiracy theorists have claimed on X and other social media platforms that her earrings had earpieces built in. In search of an earpiece that resembles pearl studs, these sore losers declared Harris was using Nova's H1 Audio Earrings.
The earrings are said to have directional sound that remains audible only to the wearer. Per their Kickstarter page, they "are placed on the earlobes and project the sound from inside the pearl straight into your ear canal." Sure, they look a little like the pearl earrings Harris wore on stage but they're not the same. Style bloggers have already identified the pair of Tiffany earrings Harris wore to the debate and at previous events (as well as noting that she has worn a chain from the same collection).
The main trouble is that the Nova H1 Audio Earrings barely exist.
As Newsweekpointed out, the device was part of a Kickstarter project that faded into the ether. The earrings aren’t available to buy anywhere online and never have been. Nova Products, the company behind the campaign, hasn’t logged into Kickstarter since May 2023, and backers have posted on the page asking for a status update on the earrings they were supposed to receive in exchange for their pledge.
The URL for Nova Products’ website, as listed on Kickstarter, now redirects to that of another company, Icebach Sound Solutions. That website showcases a pair of audio earrings with a different design and, in the wake of the debate, a message stating "special edition for presidential debates — soon available to everyone" was added to the site sometime between 7AM and 11:25AM ET, according to caches on The Wayback Machine. That presumably tongue-in-cheek claim added links to the CES 2025 website.
Icebach Sound Solutions
Both Icebach and Nova's website's list their domain registrar as one Stephan Berendsen of BBG Entertainment GmbH, an apparent mobile games developer based in Germany. What such a company has to do with audio products or the US presidential election remains a mystery, but we've reached out to BBG — as well as the Harris campaign — for comment.
"We do not know whether Mrs. Harris wore one of our products. The resemblance is striking and while our product was not specifically developed for the use at presidential debates, it is nonetheless suited for it," Icebach Sound Solutions managing director Malte Iversen told Engadget in a statement, in what we assume is an attempt to cash in on some sudden if unusual publicity. "To ensure a level playing field for both candidates, we are currently developing a male version and will soon be able to offer it to the Trump campaign. The choice of color is a bit challenging though as orange does not go well with a lot of colors."
In any case, this seems like another straightforward job for Occam's razor. Harris almost certainly did not wear an earpiece because the earrings she wore look noticeably different and the product she's accused of wearing doesn't exist. By the same token, it's simply more plausible a seasoned politician can win a debate being extremely well-prepared and ready to throw an opponent with a notoriously fragile ego off their game without requiring a team to feed them information via an earpiece.
The Nova H1 Audio Earrings show all the classic signs of being vaporware, right down to being shown off for the first time at CES 2023, though perhaps we'll see a new version under different branding somewhere on the show floor in January.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/wearables/the-audio-earrings-kamala-harris-didnt-wear-during-the-debate-barely-even-exist-161526009.html?src=rss
If you thought the price of a fully specced iPhone 16 Pro Max or Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 was high, Huawei has a new flagship that might require some folks to pull off a bank heist to afford. The Mate XT, which the company claims is the first triple-fold phone to hit the market, will debut in China and start at 19,999 yuan (approximately $2,800). That's enough to buy an 11-inch iPad Pro, M3 MacBook Air and an iPhone 16 — and still have cash to spare.
It took Huawei five years to develop the Mate XT, according to the chairman of its consumer business, Richard Yu. As part of that process, the company is said to have made breakthroughs in screen and hinge technology. The device folds up accordion-style, with one hinge bending outward and the other inward, leaving one of the panels available to use as a 6.4-inch exterior display.
“Huawei Mate XT is the world’s first triple-fold smartphone, and the largest and thinnest foldable handset globally,” Yu said during a launch event, according to CNN. “We are the first in the world to achieve outward folding (in smartphones) and the first to create an inward-folding phone with no gaps.”
Despite the high price, the Mate XT has already caught the imagination of Chinese consumers. By early Tuesday, Huawei had received 3.7 million preorders.
It's no surprise as to why Huawei formally revealed the device hours after Monday's iPhone event — it's looking to steal some of Apple's thunder. Given its pre-order numbers and the relatively modest iPhone hardware updates this year (Apple is banking on the delayed Apple Intelligence features as a key selling point), Huawei may have just pulled that off.
When completely unfolded, the Mate XT has a 10.2-inch 3K display with a 92 percent screen-to-body ratio. Buyers can use one, two or all three panels at once (the size of the two-panel display is 7.9 inches). It comes in red or black with a leather finish on the rear and gold trim on the edges and folds. When they're out of range of a cell network, owners will be able to communicate with the rest of the world via satellite.
As you might imagine, there are a bunch of generative AI features too, including a voice input function that can polish and translate a transcript. There's the option to have a chatbot open on one side of the screen to answer questions and summarize articles. There's an AI photo-editing tool too. On that note, Huawei says the triple-camera system (which features a periscope telephoto camera and an ultra-wide-angle camera) includes an approximate optical zoom of 5.5x.
The rollout plans for the Mate XT outside China are not yet clear. The Mate XT is unlikely to officially come to the US, given sanctions that have been in place against the company over the last few years.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/huaweis-first-tri-fold-phone-starts-at-an-eye-watering-2800-145113669.html?src=rss
There are arguably only three sure things in life: death, taxes and a new bunch of iPhones every September. Like clockwork, Apple has revealed this year's iPhone lineup, which is anchored by the iPhone 16 and its larger sibling, the iPhone 16 Plus. Apple has made some alterations to the external design, but the company’s main focus this year is on Apple Intelligence, with the new phones designed from the ground up to support that.
There are a few notable changes to the exteriors of both devices this year. First, the rear camera array is arranged vertically on the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus with a pill-shaped bump. These lenses will now support spatial video recording — in other words, the 3D footage that you can view using a Vision Pro headset. You'll be able to take spatial photos too. There's also support for 4K video capture at 60 frames per second with Dolby Vision.
Apple
Apple is doing something else interesting with the camera array in the iPhone 16. One camera seems to combine a 48MP main lens with a 2x telephoto lens in what's called a "Fusion camera." The other is a 12MP Ultra Wide camera. This now has an f/2.2 aperture, which is an improvement on the previous f/2.4 aperture. As such, that means that Apple will offer a macro mode for the base iPhone models for the first time, so folks who don't opt for an iPhone 16 Pro or Pro Max should be able to take better close-up photos.
Second, the Action button that debuted on last year's Pro models has arrived on the lower-end models. This button, which replaces the mute switch, is customizable. You might set it up to activate the flashlight or a Voice Memos recording. It can trigger Shortcuts and, starting in iOS 18, you can use it to adjust a Control Center setting. You can set up the Action button to have different functions at different times of day.
Third, there's another new Camera Control button that's dedicated to capturing photos and videos, so you won't have to tap your display, press one of the volume buttons or use a remote trigger to take a snap or a recording. Clicking the button opens the Camera app. The touch-sensitive button works in a similar fashion to the capture button on a DSLR camera — lightly press to focus on a subject, then fully press to take a photo. You can hold it down to start recording a video.
You'll be able to adjust camera settings (such as the zoom) by sliding your finger back and forth on the touch-sensitive button. This could well be a game-changer for iPhone-focused photographers.
The Camera Control button also works with a new Google Lens-style visual intelligence feature that's coming to the iPhone 16 later this year. For instance, you an point your phone at a new restaurant, click the Camera Control and find out details about the menu and opening hours.
Apple
The other key upgrades are on the interior. Apple says there's a new thermal system made from 100 percent recycled aluminum to replace the copper one from previous devices. That should help reduce overheating and improve temperature regulation – Apple says you’ll get 30 percent higher sustained performance while gaming. In addition, there’s support for hardware-accelerated ray-tracing, which is said to deliver five times higher frame rates than with software-accelerated ray-tracing.
Some games that were previously only supported on the iPhone 15 Pro (at least in terms of phones) will be available on iPhone 16. Those include Assassin's Creed Mirage and several Resident Eviltitles.
Apple Intelligence will be powered by the all-new A18 chipset. It has a CPU that's up to 30 percent faster than the one found in the iPhone 15, and a GPU that's up to 40 percent faster. There's an upgraded neural engine that is said to be up to two times faster for machine learning. As expected, Apple Intelligence features will start rolling out in the US in English in October, before expanding to some other countries in December and other languages in 2025.
As part of the Apple Intelligence shift, a new Siri experience is coming into play. This isn't a huge surprise as it was part of the iOS 18 preview when we got our first look at WWDC in June. Not only does Apple claim that Siri will have deeper understanding of language and users' personal context, the voice assistant will have a new glowing interface. That's what the iPhone event's "It's Glowtime" tagline is based on. However, it may be several more months before Apple fully rolls out all of Siri's upgrades.
The iPhone 16 is built with aerospace-grade aluminum and is available in some new colors, including ultramarine, teal and pink to go with white and black. It’s built for greater durability too. Apple says it’s water- and dust-resistant, and has a new glass-ceramic screen that’s said to be 50 percent tougher than the one of the iPhone 15 and twice as strong as "any other smartphone." Much like the Apple Watch lineup, the screen can be as dark as 1 nit or as bright as 2,000 nits. The screen sizes remain the same at 6.1 inches for the iPhone 16 and 6.7 inches for the iPhone 16 Plus.
Apple claims there's a bigger battery in the iPhone 16 as well, which is always welcome to hear. The company claims it will work in concert with the A18 and the power efficiency features of iOS 18 to deliver longer battery life. Apple says the iPhone 16 will deliver up to 22 hours of local video playback, 18 hours of streaming video and 80 hours of audio playback on a single charge.
Apple
On the safety front, you'll be able to share live videos if you need to use the Emergency SOS function. Messages via satellite and other messaging features are coming to the US and Canada, while Emergency SOS and Find My via satellite are available in 18 countries, including the US.
Elsewhere, Apple is bringing Wi-Fi 7 to the base models for the first time this year. That's a nice upgrade — as long as you have a compatible router, of course. That should help future-proof the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus to a degree as well.
Pre-orders for the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus open on Friday, and they will be available on September 20. Pricing starts at $799 for the iPhone 16 and $899 for the iPhone 16 Plus, each of which have 128GB of storage at the base level. They'll also be available with 256GB or 512GB of storage.
Catch up on all the news from Apple’s iPhone 16 event right here!
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/apples-iphone-16-gets-a-camera-button-action-button-and-the-a18-chip-174756253.html?src=rss
We likely won't have to wait much longer to get all the official details on the PlayStation 5 Pro. Sony has announced a PlayStation 5 Technical Presentation that it will stream at 11AM ET on September 10 on the PlayStation YouTube channel.
All indications point toward this being the official unveiling of the PS5 Pro. Mark Cerny, the lead architect of the PS5, will host the stream, which will focus on the "PS5 and innovations in gaming technology." This comes just a few days after Sony teased a redesigned PS5 in an image that lines up with various PS5 Pro leaks. It was also expected that the company would unveil the PS5 Pro in mid-September ahead of the holiday shopping season.
Add all that up, plus a tagline that reads "The Journey Continues" in a teaser video, and it's pretty clear what's in store. For what it's worth, Cerny detailed the PS5's specs from behind a lectern in a 2020 livestream (Sony had to pivot from a planned Game Developers Conference talk after COVID-19 took hold).
The PS5 Pro rumor mill suggests that the mid-cycle refresh will deliver improved and consistent frame rates at 4K resolution as well as an 8K performance mode in supported games. Game rendering is said to be 45 percent faster than on the standard PS5, while the Pro's ray-tracing capabilities are reportedly two to three times faster.
Tune in tomorrow for a PlayStation 5 Technical Presentation hosted by Mark Cerny
Update, September 10 2024, 9:05AM ET: This story has been updated with a link to the PlayStation livestream.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/playstation/sony-looks-set-to-announce-the-ps5-pro-today-in-a-strangely-short-livestream-152342331.html?src=rss
Google is facing yet more scrutiny over its ad tech practices after the UK’s competition watchdog provisionally found that the company is abusing its dominant market position. In a statement of objections, the Competition and Markets Authority said Google is harming competition in the country “by using its dominance in online display advertising to favor its own ad tech services.”
The watchdog contends that, since 2015, Google has taken advantage of its dominant position in the sector as the operator of the Google Ads and DV260 ad-buying tools and DoubleClick For Publishers, a publisher ad server, to bolster its AdX advertising exchange. The CMA said that AdX is at the heart of the company's ad tech stack and it's the platform on which it charges the highest fees to advertisers — approximately 20 percent of each bid for ad space that's processed there.
The CMA provisionally found that "the vast majority of publishers and advertisers use Google’s ad tech services in order to bid for and sell advertising space" on websites. By preferencing its own services, "Google disadvantages competitors and prevents them competing on a level playing field to provide publishers and advertisers with a better, more competitive service that supports growth in their business," the CMA stated.
The statement of objections gives Google a chance to provide feedback and the CMA will consider those representations before it makes any final decision. A case decision group comprising three people (none of whom were involved in the preliminary investigation or sending the statement of objections). If the CMA ultimately determines that Google has infringed competition rules, it can fine the company up to 10 percent of its global annual revenue and order legally binding changes to the ad tech business.
Google disagrees with the decision and “will respond accordingly,” Dan Taylor, vice president of Google Ads, said. “Our advertising technology tools help websites and apps fund their content, and enable businesses of all sizes to effectively reach new customers,” Taylor told CNBCin a statement. “Google remains committed to creating value for our publisher and advertiser partners in this highly competitive sector. The core of this case rests on flawed interpretations of the ad tech sector.”
Regulators elsewhere have taken aim at Google's position in the ad tech space. The European Commission accused the company of "abusive practices" in the online ad space in June last year. The EC said that a potential order for Google to implement remedies may not be enough to resolve those practices. That could lead to the EU breaking up Google's ad business.
Meanwhile, the Department of Justice and Google are set to go head-to-head in a trial that will start on Monday. The agency has called for the company's ad tech business to be broken up, citing an alleged illegal monopoly Google holds in that market. Google failed in an attempt to have the case dismissed. Last month, a federal judge ruled that Google illegally abused a monopoly over the search industry following a trial that stemmed from a separate DOJ lawsuit.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/uk-watchdog-claims-googles-ad-tech-practices-are-harming-competition-144944451.html?src=rss
New Mexico's attorney general has filed a lawsuit against Snap, accusing the company of failing to protect children from sextortion, sexual exploitation and other harms on Snapchat. The suit contends that Snapchat's features "foster the sharing of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) and facilitate child sexual exploitation."
The state's Department of Justice carried out a months-long investigation into Snapchat and discovered a “vast network of dark web sites dedicated to sharing stolen, non-consensual sexual images from Snap.” It claims to have found more than 10,000 records related to Snap and child sexual abuse material “in the last year alone,” and says Snapchat was "by far" the biggest source of images and videos on the dark web sites that it examined.
In its complaint [PDF], the agency accused the app of being “a breeding ground for predators to collect sexually explicit images of children and to find, groom and extort them.” It states that "criminals circulate sextortion scripts" that contain instructions on how to victimize minors. It claims that these documents are publicly available and are actively being used against victims but they “have not yet been blacklisted by . . . Snapchat.”
Furthermore, investigators determined that many accounts that openly share and sell CSAM on Snapchat are linked to each other through the app's recommendation algorithm. The suit claims "Snap designed its platform specifically to make it addicting to young people, which has led some of its users to depression, anxiety, sleep deprivation, body dysmorphia and other mental health issues."
“Our undercover investigation revealed that Snapchat's harmful design features create an environment where predators can easily target children through sextortion schemes and other forms of sexual abuse,” Attorney General Raúl Torrez said in a statement. “Snap has misled users into believing that photos and videos sent on their platform will disappear, but predators can permanently capture this content and they have created a virtual yearbook of child sexual images that are traded, sold and stored indefinitely. Through our litigation against Meta and Snap, the New Mexico Department of Justice will continue to hold these platforms accountable for prioritizing profits over children's safety.”
A Snap spokesperson sent the following statement to Engadget:
We have received the New Mexico Attorney General’s complaint, are reviewing it carefully, and will respond to these claims in court. We share Attorney General Torrez’s and the public’s concerns about the online safety of young people and are deeply committed to Snapchat being a safe and positive place for our entire community, particularly for our younger users.
We have been working diligently to find, remove and report bad actors, educate our community, and give teens, as well as parents and guardians, tools to help them be safe online. We understand that online threats continue to evolve and we will continue to work diligently to address these critical issues. We have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in our trust and safety teams over the past several years, and designed our service to promote online safety by moderating content and enabling direct messaging with close friends and family. We continue this work in collaboration with law enforcement, online safety experts, industry peers, parents, teens, educators and policymakers towards our shared goal of keeping young people safe online.
Update September 5, 2024, 3:24PM ET: Added Snap's statement.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/new-mexico-sues-snap-over-its-alleged-failure-to-protect-kids-from-sextortion-schemes-182426135.html?src=rss
A North Carolina man is facing fraud charges after allegedly uploading hundreds of thousands of AI-generated songs to streaming services and using bots to play them billions of times. Michael Smith is said to have received over $10 million in royalties since 2017 via the scheme.
Smith, 52, was arrested on Wednesday. An indictment [PDF] that was unsealed the same day accuses him of using the bots to steal royalty payments from platforms including Spotify, Apple Music and Amazon Music. Smith has been charged with wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud and money laundering conspiracy. Each count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. The US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York says this is its first criminal case that concerns the use of bots to artificially inflate music streaming numbers.
Prosecutors accused Smith of creating thousands of bots to stream the songs. At first, he was said to have uploaded his own music to the streaming services, but realized that his catalog wasn't big enough to produce a large sum of royalties. After other efforts didn't pan out, he's said to have turned to AI-generated music in 2018.
According to the indictment, Smith began working with two unnamed co-conspirators — the CEO of an AI music company and a music promoter — to create hundreds of thousands of songs using AI. In exchange for a cut of revenue, the CEO allegedly provided thousands of tracks per week to Smith, who is said to have randomly generated song titles and artist names for the audio files.
Smith is accused of lying to streaming services by providing phony names and other fake account details while setting up the bots, and by agreeing to rules that ban streaming manipulation. According to the indictment, he deceived streaming services by making it seem the bot accounts were legit when in fact they "were hard coded to stream Smith’s music billions of times." Smith allegedly attempted to cover his tracks by using dummy email addresses and VPNs, while telling his co-conspirators to be “undetectable.”
"Michael Smith fraudulently streamed songs created with artificial intelligence billions of times in order to steal royalties," US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement. "Through his brazen fraud scheme, Smith stole millions in royalties that should have been paid to musicians, songwriters, and other rights holders whose songs were legitimately streamed."
The case of Smith is in stark contrast to a musician The New York Times profiled earlier this year. Matt Farley has written, recorded and uploaded tens of thousands of songs to streaming services about anything and everything people might search for, from celebrities and marriage proposals to many tunes about poop. Some songs are just a few seconds long, but the practice seems to be entirely above board. He's said to have earned around $200,000 from his music in 2023.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/alleged-fraudster-got-10-million-in-royalties-using-robots-to-stream-ai-made-music-162944343.html?src=rss
The UK’s competition watchdog has opened a formal investigation into Ticketmaster after tickets for Oasis' reunion shows went on sale last weekend. The Competition and Markets Authority said it will look into the company’s dynamic pricing practice and whether it broke consumer law.
Dynamic pricing involves a business adjusting prices based on shifting market conditions, such as demand. Airlines are among those that use the model.
Some Oasis fans who tried desperately to get tickets for the band’s first shows in 16 years waited for hours in Ticketmaster’s virtual queues. When they were finally able to buy tickets, some found that they were two or three times more expensive than they may have expected due to dynamic pricing. With Ticketmaster often giving customers mere moments to complete a purchase after tickets are in their cart, fans were faced with having to make a snap decision about paying significantly more than they’d anticipated.
The CMA will look into the pressure of that ticking clock on consumers' purchasing decisions. It will also attempt to determine if Ticketmaster conducted “unfair commercial practices” that are banned under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations Act 2008. Moreover, the watchdog will investigate whether customers were provided with “clear and timely information to explain that the tickets could be subject to so-called ‘dynamic pricing’ with prices changing depending on demand, and how this would operate, including the price they would pay for any tickets purchased.”
The CMA notes that while dynamic pricing isn’t inherently illegal under UK law, ticket sales platforms have to be transparent with customers, and provide clear and accurate details about how much they need to pay. The watchdog said that the practice could breach consumer protection or competition law in certain cases.
Oasis criticized the use of dynamic pricing for the band's long-awaited reunion gigs. "It needs to be made clear that Oasis leave decisions on ticketing and pricing entirely to their promoters and management," the band said in a statement. It claimed to have no "awareness that dynamic pricing was going to be used." Other high-profile artists — including Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran and The Cure — have opted out of using dynamic pricing for recent shows.
Following the scramble for Oasis tickets, the UK government has pledged to look at dynamic pricing as part of a consultation into the secondary-ticket market this fall. In the US, the Justice Department and many state and district attorneys general filed an antitrust suit in a bid to break up Ticketmaster owner Live Nation. They claim it holds a monopoly over the live entertainment industry. Ticketmaster was also the victim of a cyber attack this year in which hackers obtained the personal information of 560 million customers.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/uk-competition-watchdog-opens-ticketmaster-probe-after-oasis-ticket-debacle-143233958.html?src=rss
The Department of justice (DOJ) has indicted two employees of the Russian state-owned broadcaster RT over an alleged pro-Russia influence scheme on social media platforms. Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva have been accused of being involved in a plan to pay an unnamed Tennessee company almost $10 million to spread nearly 2,000 videos (most of which included disinformation and/or pro-Russia propaganda) in English across YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and X. The DOJ says the videos had been viewed more than 16 million times on YouTube alone.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a press conference that, following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, "RT’s editor-in-chief said the company had built an 'entire empire of covert projects' designed to shape public opinion in 'Western audiences.'" As part of that goal, RT and employees (including the two defendants) "implemented a nearly $10 million scheme to fund and direct a Tennessee-based company to publish and disseminate content deemed favorable to the Russian government."
"To implement this scheme, the defendants directed the company to contract with US-based social media influencers to share this content and their platforms. The subject matter and content of many of the videos published by the company were often consistent with Russia's interest in amplifying US domestic divisions in order to weaken US opposition to core Russian interests, particularly its ongoing war in Ukraine," Garland said.
The Tennessee company didn't inform the influencers or their millions of followers of its links to the Russian government, Garland added. It instead claimed to be sponsored by a fictitious "private investor," according to the DOJ.
Kalashnikov and Afanasyeva have been charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Both are at large. However, the charges do not signal the end of the case. Galand pointed out the investigation is ongoing.
The DOJ unsealed the indictment amid a broader push by the government to clamp down on Russian propaganda and disinformation ahead of November's general election. In a separate action, the DOJ seized 32 websites "that the Russian government and the Russian-sponsored actors have used to engage in a covert campaign to interfere and influence the outcome of our country's elections," Garland said.
The campaign, which Russia is said to have called "Doppelganger," included the creation of websites that "were designed to appear to American readers as if they were major US news sites, like The Washington Post or Fox News, but, in fact, they were fake sites," Garland said. "They 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 in other countries."
Meanwhile, the Treasury and State departments announced parallel actions. The Treasury Department sanctioned ANO Dialog, a Russian nonprofit that's said to help orchestrate the Doppleganger campaign, along with RT editor-in-chief, Margarita Simonyan and other RT employees.
The State Department sanctioned RT and four other state-funded publishers. It is also offering a $10 million reward for information regarding to foreign interference over an American election.
After this story was originally published, CNN reported that the unnamed company that the Russian operatives were paying to spread disinformation was Tennessee-based Tenet Media, a company known for employing far-right commentators including Tim Pool and Benny Johnson, who have millions of subscribers on YouTube. As of now, there's no official confirmation from the government to verify CNN's report.
Update, September 5 2024, 10:05AM ET: this story has been updated to include CNN's report on Tenet Media being involved in the investigation.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/us-charges-russian-state-media-employees-over-a-social-media-influence-scheme-200028302.html?src=rss