was financed by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman who has prospered by carrying out unsavory tasks that the Kremlin wants done but prefers not to do itself, like hiring Internet trolls or deploying mercenary soldiers. In “ How to Lose the Information War,” a persuasive new book on disinformation as a geopolitical strategy, Jankowicz writes, “In an entirely unexpected collision of my two great loves, it seemed that Russia had weaponized show tunes.” “Helen Christopherson” was a Facebook alias used by one of them. was staffed by hundreds of young Russians who carried out social-media campaigns under false identities. As part of congressional inquiries into Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election, Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee made public a number of ad purchases by the Internet Research Agency, the so-called “troll factory” in St. It wasn’t until October of the following year that Jankowicz began to consider how the success of the protest might fit into a broader pattern. “That would be Massive!” In fact, Christopherson’s ad spend reached as many as fifty-eight thousand people in the D.C. “I got like $80 on my ad account so we can reach like 10000 people in DC or so,” the message read. He suspected that it had something to do with a last-minute Facebook message from a user named Helen Christopherson, who offered to pitch in cash to buy ads in exchange for administrator access to the event page. “Resist the rule of the treasonous King Donald!” Protesters waving American flags performed musical numbers calling for Trump’s impeachment, including “Do You Hear the People Sing?,” the anthem from “Les Misérables.”Ĭlayton told Jankowicz that he was impressed with the turnout. “Hear ye, hear ye, citizens,” he said, ringing a bell. On July 4th, a man dressed in a waistcoat and a tricornered hat kicked things off. She later spoke with Ryan Clayton, a progressive organizer involved in the protest. So when she came across a Facebook page for a White House protest that called on “resistance activists, show-tune lovers, and karaoke fans,” her curiosity was piqued. Jankowicz had an interest in digital diplomacy and in countering disinformation that was matched by a passion for musical theatre: in Washington, D.C., where she lived for several years before moving to Ukraine, she played Sally in “You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown” and Audrey in “Little Shop of Horrors.” In the summer of 2017, Nina Jankowicz, a twenty-eight-year-old American, was working in Kyiv as a communications adviser to Ukraine’s foreign ministry as part of a yearlong Fulbright fellowship. This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
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