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Politics : The Trump Presidency -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (85969)	7/26/2018 10:44:33 AM
From: Sam	1 Recommendation Recommended By epicure Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 368883

I haven't seen this publicized for some reason. If true, I am pretty sure that Mueller will be on it. So much for the 400 pound basement Guy or the fun seeking creative Macedonian teenager. Conservatives will stoop to anything. No lie and no plot is too outrageous. American Conservatives Played A Secret Role In The Macedonian Fake News Boom Ahead Of 2016 An investigation reveals that the fake news sites that flourished in Macedonia in 2016 weren’t just the work of local teens — and that security agencies are probing possible connections to Russia. Craig Silverman BuzzFeed News Reporter J. Lester Feder BuzzFeed News Reporter Saska Cvetkovska BuzzFeed Contributor Aubrey Belford BuzzFeed Contributor Posted on July 18, 2018, at 12:24 p.m. ET A joint investigation by BuzzFeed News and partners has uncovered new information that rewrites the story of the fake news boom in the Macedonian town of Veles. A week before Election Day in 2016, BuzzFeed News revealed that young men and teens in Veles were running over a hundred websites that pumped out often false viral stories that supported Donald Trump. Media outlets from around the world descended upon Veles to tell the story of how the so-called fake news teens — many of whom had a shaky understanding of English — made large sums of money from digital ads shown next to their misleading stories about US politics. But after reviewing social media posts, government records, domain registry information, and archived versions of fake news sites, as well as interviewing key players, BuzzFeed News, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, and the Investigative Reporting Lab Macedonia can now reveal that Veles’ political news industry was not started spontaneously by apolitical teens. Rather, it was launched by a well-known Macedonian media attorney, Trajche Arsov — who worked closely with two high-profile American partners for at least six months during a period that overlapped with Election Day. One of those Americans, Paris Wade, is now running for office in Nevada. Arsov also employed other American and British writers, including at least one who currently works for US right-wing conspiracy site the Gateway Pundit. The investigation also reveals that at least one member of Russia’s “troll factory,” who has been indicted by US special counsel Robert Mueller for alleged interference in the election, was in Macedonia just three months before the web domain for the country’s first US-focused politics site was registered. Reporters did not find any evidence connecting the Russian, Anna Bogacheva, to the Veles sites. Arsov denies any links to Russia. But now Macedonian security agencies are cooperating with law enforcement in the United States and at least two Western European countries to probe possible links between Russians, US citizens, and the pro-Trump “fake news” websites, two senior Macedonian officials said. Bogacheva and Arsov are among more than 20 people being looked at in two overlapping investigations in Macedonia, according to the two officials, who hail from different agencies in the country and were interviewed separately. The investigations are “still in a very early phase,” one of the officials told reporters. As of publication, none of the Americans involved with Arsov’s sites are known to be under investigation. A senior FBI agent familiar with the Macedonia case confirmed that the bureau is assisting with the investigations. The agent said that information determined to be of interest to Mueller is being shared with his office, but declined to comment further. Macedonian security officials said it’s not clear that anyone involved in the Veles fake news operations broke the law. But what is clear is that the powerful forces of Facebook, digital advertising revenue, and political partisanship gave rise to an unlikely global alliance that increased the spread of misleading and false news in the critical months before Election Day. Patient Zero The stereotype of the Macedonian fake news publisher is of a teenager in Veles who knows little English, doesn’t care about journalism or US politics, and excels at using spammy techniques to make plagiarized misinformation go viral. Trajche Arsov is none of these things. But he is the godfather of US politics sites in the country. Arsov, 33, is a lawyer based in the capital of Skopje who comes from Veles, and commonly goes by the nickname Tale. He is a self-described libertarian who counts Republican Sens. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz among his political idols. continues at buzzfeednews.com