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Marco Setaccioli accused the recipients of his message of collaborating with Putin and constantly contributing to the weakening of democracies. He argued that, without their actions, Putin would have stopped killing a long time ago, and he wrote that he felt deep shame for what he considered their moral abyss. #democrazia #Putin #vergogna (translated)

Operation Dark Clark – Russia built a real organisation around a false identity Most influence operations create fake people, fake websites or fake news stories. Operation Dark Clark appears to have gone considerably further: Russian operators built what looked like a functioning research organisation in Latin America, employed real people to produce genuine research and concealed from those employees who was ultimately directing their work. OpenAI disclosed the operation on 8 October after banning a cluster of accounts originating in Russia. The actors used ChatGPT while targeting countries across Latin America, principally to damage Ukraine’s reputation, manipulate domestic political debates and manage a self-described research organisation called the Social Research Center, or SRC. OpenAI assessed Dark Clark as Category Five on the six-level Breakout Scale, the first operation it has disrupted since beginning its influence-operation reporting to reach that level. A front organisation with real employees The SRC presented itself as a research platform studying subjects including Latin America’s relationship with India and the Indian diaspora. OpenAI found more than 60 articles on its website, most of them apparently original rather than plagiarised. Internal reports produced by the Russian operators discussed hiring, dismissals, salary scales, staffing and unfinished research projects, strongly suggesting that the operators controlled the organisation rather than merely collaborating with it. At the centre of the structure was “Mia Clark”, a fictitious identity reportedly used to manage social-media activity and communicate with staff. According to OpenAI, the available evidence indicates that employees working for SRC in Latin America were probably unaware that the organisation was being directed by Russian actors. They interviewed experts, conducted research and wrote papers in what appears to have been good faith. The deception therefore existed primarily at the organisational level: much of the work was real, but the identity and strategic purpose of the institution commissioning it were not. OpenAI This is one reason Dark Clark differs from the familiar model of a troll farm. A reader encountering an SRC paper might be looking at research genuinely written by a Latin American employee based on genuine interviews. The manipulation lies further upstream, in who built the institution, selected its direction and controlled its infrastructure. From forged emails to real events The operation also appears to have attempted something more ambitious than online persuasion: inducing real people to produce events that could later be turned into propaganda. In May 2026, according to the operators’ internal reports, they created an email address impersonating Lima’s regional education authorities and instructed schools to organise activities about Ukraine for a cultural-diversity event. The instructions included references to Stepan Bandera, whose historical legacy remains particularly contentious in Poland and parts of Eastern Europe. The operators claimed that some schools complied, replied to the false address and sent photographs of the events. OpenAI could not independently verify every claim contained in the operators’ reports. It did, however, find Peruvian reporting matching the story, followed by publications in Poland and an English-language outlet in Hungary. Some coverage included comments from a Polish MEP calling for people displaying what he described as anti-Polish attitudes to be declared persona non grata. OpenAI therefore concluded that the fabricated starting point appears to have entered genuine political debate across national borders. The mechanism is unusually effective because the final photographs need not themselves be fabricated. If people can be tricked into staging a real event on the basis of a forged instruction, the operation creates authentic visual evidence of something that was artificially initiated. The same method in Ecuador and Bolivia Dark Clark’s internal reports describe similar efforts elsewhere. In Ecuador, the operators claimed they used a fake education email to encourage schools to stage ceremonies involving President Daniel Noboa and Erik Prince, the former head of Blackwater. Ecuadorian media subsequently covered a matching controversy, and the country’s education minister issued a detailed denial. Other Ecuador-focused material included fabricated audio attributed to Ukraine’s consul and a false television report alleging that Noboa’s government was recruiting Ecuadorians to fight in Ukraine. Local fact-checker Lupa found that the supposed Teleamazonas report had never been broadcast, that images had been taken from Instagram, that the audio was AI-generated and that a company named in a supposed recruitment contract did not exist in Ecuador’s corporate registry. In Bolivia, an internal report described a fake audio recording supposedly made by an employee of state water company EPSAS during anti-government protests. It claimed that water supplies to La Paz would be cut and a state of emergency declared. The allegation produced a fact-check and an official denial. OpenAI says the operators explicitly described their objective as worsening the political crisis surrounding the demonstrations. Possible links to the post-Wagner influence machine Dark Clark did not emerge in a vacuum. The operators repeatedly asked ChatGPT about Politology and La Compania, names associated in previous investigations with the Russian influence apparatus that developed from structures once connected to Yevgeny Prigozhin. Forbidden Stories and its partners obtained 1,431 pages of internal documents describing a network known as “The Company”, which they reported had grown to almost 100 operatives and was conducting influence projects across roughly 30 Global South countries. Their investigation found that the organisation moved under the supervision of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service, the SVR, after Prigozhin’s death. Its documented budget for ten months of activity in 2024 was approximately €7.3 million. Two older Argentina campaigns claimed in Dark Clark’s internal reports — a false story about Javier Milei buying Cartier collars for his dogs and the staging of anti-Milei graffiti — had already been independently attributed by investigative journalists to Politology/La Compania. That is significant corroboration, but it is not enough to prove that every Dark Clark activity was run by the same organisational structure. AI was the back office, not the mastermind Perhaps the most important finding concerns artificial intelligence itself. In most documented cases, the Russians were not using ChatGPT to generate the propaganda seen by the public. Their principal use was administrative: drafting reports for an unknown superior, summarising operations, translating material and recording the supposed success of campaigns. Those reports also expose a weakness in the operators’ own measurement. OpenAI found instances in which they tried to claim credit for developments they had probably not caused, suggesting that they were not only attempting to manipulate Latin American audiences but also presenting an inflated picture of their effectiveness to whoever was supervising them. Dark Clark nevertheless broke further into the real world than any influence operation OpenAI had previously disrupted. Under the Brookings framework, Category Five means that an operation has escaped its original network and been amplified by high-profile individuals such as politicians. Dark Clark crossed that threshold because fabricated narratives appear to have provoked governmental denials, mainstream reporting and political comment in several countries. Its most important innovation was therefore not a particularly convincing deepfake. It was the construction of a partly genuine institution around a concealed foreign controller. The research could be real. The employees could be real. The interviews could be real. What was false was who they were ultimately working for. Sources OpenAI — Disrupting AI-enabled “false front” operations https://openai.com/index/disrupting-ai-enabled-false-front-operations/ Forbidden Stories — Propaganda Machine: Russia’s foreign influence strategy across three continents https://forbiddenstories.org/propaganda-machine-secret-documents-reveal-russias-foreign-influence-strategy-across-three-continents/ Forbidden Stories — Ghost Journalists, Cash and Kremlin Scripts: Argentina https://forbiddenstories.org/ghost-journalists-cash-and-kremlin-scripts-how-russian-operatives-tried-to-influence-argentinian-media/ openDemocracy — Russian influence operation in Bolivia https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/russia-bolivia-south-america-putin-evo-morales-wagner-prigozhin-covert-operations-propaganda-disinformation-foreign-interference/ Lupa Media — Fake Teleamazonas report about recruiting Ecuadorians for Ukraine https://lupa.com.ec/verificaciones/noboa-mercenarios-ucrania-ecuador/ Brookings Institution — The Breakout Scale https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-breakout-scale-measuring-the-impact-of-influence-operations/ Keywords: #DISINFORMED #Episode17 #OperationDarkClark #DarkClark #Russia #LatinAmerica #RussianInfluence #RussianDisinformation #Disinformation #InformationWarfare #InfluenceOperations #ForeignInterference #FIMI #FalseFront #FrontOrganisation #FakeInstitution #SocialResearchCenter #SRC #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #GenerativeAI #ChatGPT #OpenAI #NarrativeManipulation #SourceLaundering #InstitutionalManipulation #ForgedDocuments #FakeAudio #PoliticalInfluence #CovertInfluence #Peru #Ecuador #Bolivia #Argentina #Ukraine #Politology #LaCompania #TheCompany #SVR #WagnerLegacy #PropagandaMachine #GlobalSouth #BreakoutScale #OSINT #MediaManipulation #WRLD

The author of the entry wrote that he no longer recognized America, which he associated with Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Reagan. He accused Donald Trump of lecturing the attacked Volodymyr Zelensky while simultaneously communicating with Vladimir Putin. He rated this as a moral compromise and stated that in this situation, the aggressor became a partner, and the victim— the wrongdoer. He added that he did not think he would live to see such a downfall. #Polityka #Ameryka #Morale #US #UA #RU (translated)

The building was shaking, people were falling on top of each other. There were injured people on the ground, trying to get back up. I myself suffered a strong blow to my knee and ankle, losing my balance due to the strong shaking of the floor," recalls Aline Morales, Panama City. #Terremoto #Panama #Emergenza (translated)

AuBonTouiteFrançais wrote that BHL was approaching the "end of recess," which, according to him, would pave the way for shedding light on the lies, the moral and economic bankruptcy of globalists, and their heavy responsibility in this war. He mentioned the time for reckoning. #politique #mondialisme #vérité (translated)

Jon De Lorraine stated that the debate between Louise and Elwan was followed because it revealed, beyond a televised confrontation, a crisis of representation. He presented Louise as a young woman who embraced her ideas and, in his view, met the expectations of millions of French people disappointed by a political class he accused of calculating to preserve its allowances and interests. In contrast, he described Elwan as representative of a self-assured and moralizing television left. He praised her oratorical ease while asserting that she drew inspiration from the style of Jean-Luc Mélenchon. According to him, the left and far-left were thus seeking to extend their ideas to younger and more affluent classes but found themselves struggling as soon as the debate went beyond slogans. De Lorraine interpreted the resonance of the sequence as a sign that some French people were looking for new faces and a break from the traditional political class. He mentioned an economic, security, and migration crisis, but above all, a crisis of representation, and concluded that a part of the country desired a less formatted discourse as well as a right that assumed its ideas more fully. #PolitiqueFrançaise #Changement #EngagementCitoyen (translated)

French Milei supporters published a translation of a tweet from Javier Milei, in which the Argentine president accused socialism of claiming causes such as disability, retirees, or public universities to justify, in his opinion, uncontrolled and untransparent spending and bureaucratic structures. Milei claimed that audit requests were often presented as an attack against the concerned individuals, and that opening accounts revealed intermediaries, advocacy organizations, and taxpayer-funded privileges. He argued that this mechanism had been observed in Argentina and other countries, to the detriment of people who truly needed help and Argentine taxpayers. He demanded the publication of all accounts and contracts as well as accountability from each responsible party. #Liberté #Transparence #Responsabilité (translated)

Joan Larroumec presented the tensions between France and Germany as a result of increasing competition, particularly in the defense industry. He indicated that Berlin planned military spending of €108 billion in 2026, compared to €57 billion for Paris, and nearly €140 billion in 2027. According to him, Germany was seeking to use these expenditures as a lever for economic transformation, while its historical industrial model was weakened. Larroumec notably cited the decline in German exports to China, which he claimed fell from €106 billion in 2022 to €81 billion in 2025, as well as a reduction of 142,400 jobs in the German automotive industry since 2019. He also wrote that German defense start-ups had received $3.5 billion in investments in 2026, compared to $375 million in France, and that Berlin had concluded a framework agreement with Helsing and Stark that could reach €4.3 billion. He estimated that this strategy heightened rivalries between the two countries and jeopardized their joint programs. He reported that Paris and Berlin acknowledged on June 8 that the SCAF could not be successfully executed, and that the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces announced Germany's abandonment of the MGCS tank program. He also mentioned competition in drones, artificial intelligence, and space, where, according to him, Germany was seeking to reduce France's position. Finally, Larroumec argued that France's financial difficulties limited its ability to invest in defense and risked weakening its industry. He stated that French and German interests were becoming increasingly misaligned and that this situation could lead to chaotic episodes in Europe. #France #Allemagne #Défense (translated)

raises serious doubts from a regulatory perspective and regarding the respect for the institutional neutrality that the president of the Cortes must uphold. In a press conference, the deputy spokesman for the PSOE group, Jesús Morales, pointed out that Navarro's intervention "raises serious doubts from a regulatory perspective and regarding the respect for the institutional neutrality that the president of the Cortes must uphold." #PSOE #CortesDeAragón #MaríaNavarro (translated)

Chicago Boy recalled that at the beginning of the Covid pandemic, France found itself without masks and that the Macronist government had subsequently promised to replenish the state’s stocks. Relying on information he claimed to have received from an industry executive, he stated that the state had given up on renewing these stocks to save money and was leaving hospitals to fend for themselves. He estimated that the country would thus remain without sufficient reserves in case of a new pandemic and blamed the state for saving money at the expense of what is essential. #Covid19 #Santé #État (translated)

LFI has an obvious political and moral responsibility in the face of this violence," says Maud Bregeon, government spokesperson. The President of the Republic did not wait until October 2026 to provide answers. Student anger: "The President of the Republic did not wait until October 2026 to provide answers," emphasizes Maud Bregeon, government spokesperson. The withdrawal of stun grenades is "a temporary decision," assures Maud Bregeon, government spokesperson. Our priority is a return to order and calm. Violence in the margins of student mobilization: "Our priority is a return to order and calm," explains Maud Bregeon, government spokesperson. #MobilisationLycéenne #MaudBregeon #Gouvernement (translated)

The income differences between rich and poor neighborhoods in Spain are worsening, highlighting a disparity of 224,000 euros between La Moraleja in Madrid, with an average income of 235,556 euros, and Torreblanca in Seville, which barely reaches 11,560 euros. #Rentas #Desigualdad #Economía (translated)

The income gap between the richest neighborhood in Spain, La Moraleja in Madrid, and the poorest, Torreblanca in Seville, reaches 223,996 euros, representing a difference of 1,937.7% according to an analysis of 811 postal codes in 68 municipalities. #RentaEspaña #DesigualdadEconómica #EstadísticasHacienda (translated)