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Special Report: Is the NY Post Article a Late-Game Disinformation Effort to Disrupt the Election?
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Special Report: Is the NY Post Article a Late-Game Disinformation Effort to Disrupt the Election?

It's not clear if any foreign threat actor or bona fide "hacking" incident was involved but a whole lot of confusion and chaos reigned. Bright side: U.S. is better prepared to tackle disinformation.

Cynthia Brumfield
Oct 15, 2020
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Special Report: Is the NY Post Article a Late-Game Disinformation Effort to Disrupt the Election?
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My CSO column published today (which I wrote two days ago and is unfortunatley behind a registration wall) is devoted to mostly what FireEye’s John Hultquist predicts could be “late-game” cybersecurity and disinformation events that could influence the presidential election. Hultquist specifically warned about hack-and-leak operations carried out by adversaries, Russia specifically. He also said he was worried about the planting of stories on websites that are associated with fake documents and images.

Yesterday morning Hultquist’s warning seemed highly prescient given that the New York Post published a story of dubious origins featuring suspicious materials that were purportedly pulled off laptops abandoned by presidential candidate Joe Biden’s son Hunter at a computer repair shop in Delaware. The story was clearly a broadside against Biden and, intentionally or not, designed to hurt his campaign.

Not only is the surfacing of this kind of material at the bitter end of a highly turbulent campaign suspicious, but few of the details — such as the location of the computer repair shop— were confirmed by the Post. Moreover, emails were embedded in the article as images, making them harder to analyze and verify, raising doubts about their authenticity.

As cyberwarfare specialist Thomas Rid pointed out early in the day in a highly quoted Twitter thread, the Post’s reporting should be viewed cautiously. He advised journalists not to write about the story until they could obtain further verification of the details.

Twitter avatar for @RidTThomas Rid @RidT
CAUTION ADVISED with this morning's Burisma-Biden E-mail story. For several reasons.
Image

October 14th 2020

2,420 Retweets4,769 Likes

The reaction to the Post story on social media was swift and damning. Most journalists and pundits were highly skeptical of the piece. Some just out-and-out proclaimed the story a Russian operation, a logical if unfounded declaration given that few cybersecurity experts have yet developed the basis for that attribution.

Twitter avatar for @normativeJulian Sanchez @normative
The more I think about the Post’s story, the crazier it seems. IF the story is accurate, Rudy Giuliani is approached with a private citizen’s stolen hard drive, containing e-mails about conduct that on face isn’t even inappropriate, let alone criminal, & hands it to a tabloid.

October 15th 2020

238 Retweets869 Likes
Twitter avatar for @sheerafSheera Frenkel @sheeraf
Wait, a sopping wet laptop is left at a computer repair store and the shop owner just decides to go through the emails and personal information on it? Then the Delaware shop owner hands it over to the feds AND Giuliani’s lawyer? And THEN the whole story leaks to the @nypost?

October 14th 2020

22 Retweets132 Likes
Twitter avatar for @KarlBodeKarl Bode @KarlBode
it's a Russian op, you dumbasses

October 14th 2020

3 Retweets25 Likes

The New York Times Maggie Haberman uncritically retweeted the Post article, which generated massive derision and criticism among her fellow journalists and Twitter commentators. They accused her of unthinkingly disseminating Russian propaganda.

At Mother Jones, David Corn wrote a piece on how Donald Trump and his lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who was the main source of the material, are pushing Russian propaganda. Corn offers no evidence that Russia is behind the article other than the piece is “in sync with Moscow’s ongoing effort to influence the 2020 election to help Donald Trump retain power.”

It should be noted that the author of the piece is a neophyte journalist whose sole previous journalism experience is working as a producer and booker on Fox’s Sean Hannity show. Her social media postings seemingly show her to be a fan of hard-right media figures.

Twitter avatar for @joshtpmJosh Marshall @joshtpm
As noted, the purported Biden hard drive story in the @nypost is one that wld require significant forensic analysis/confirmation. Lead reporter (Emma-Jo Morris) is former Hannity segment producer/booker. Here's Linkedin CV. Total of three stories for the Post. All dated today.
Image

October 14th 2020

1,454 Retweets3,570 Likes

Against this backdrop, Twitter and Facebook took relatively quick action to limit the article's dissemination until further verification of the article’s details could be obtained. Twitter banned click-throughs to the NY Post article explaining that it violated a number of the site’s rules, including a violation of its “hacked materials” policy.

Twitter avatar for @AlxThompAlex Thompson @AlxThomp
Wow. twitter going even further than FB and is no longer letting ppl tweet the NYPost story. This is what pops up if you try. https://t.co/YVlOTeF1iX
Image

Alex Thompson @AlxThomp

Facebook says it's reducing the distribution of the NYPost's Hunter Biden story. https://t.co/K7IqXrQmXw

October 14th 2020

3,116 Retweets10,152 Likes
Twitter avatar for @jackjack @jack
Our communication around our actions on the @nypost article was not great. And blocking URL sharing via tweet or DM with zero context as to why we’re blocking: unacceptable.

Twitter Safety @TwitterSafety

We want to provide much needed clarity around the actions we’ve taken with respect to two NY Post articles that were first Tweeted this morning.

October 14th 2020

7,173 Retweets19,127 Likes

Not everyone bought that the materials allegedly taken off the supposed abandoned laptop constituted “hacked materials.”

Twitter avatar for @lorenzofbLorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai @lorenzofb
Twitter says it blocked the New York Post Hunter Biden story because it contains hacked data, and because there was a lack of authoritative reporting in it. This is a bizzarre decision by Twitter.
Twitter Says It Blocked NY Post Hunter Biden Article Because It Contains Hacked DataThe social media giant also drew on what it said was a lack of authoritive reporting on the origins of the emails as a reason to stop the spread of the article.vice.com

October 14th 2020

10 Retweets28 Likes

Facebook said it is slowing down the material distribution until third parties can fact-check it.

Twitter avatar for @andymstoneAndy Stone @andymstone
While I will intentionally not link to the New York Post, I want be clear that this story is eligible to be fact checked by Facebook's third-party fact checking partners. In the meantime, we are reducing its distribution on our platform.

October 14th 2020

2,923 Retweets9,077 Likes

Not surprisingly, the GOP and defenders of Donald Trump are outraged that the story wasn’t having the effect that the Rupert Murdoch-owned paper intended.

Twitter avatar for @HawleyMOJosh Hawley @HawleyMO
.@Twitter @jack this is not nearly good enough. In fact, it’s a joke. It’s downright insulting. I will ask you - and @Facebook - to give an explanation UNDER OATH to the Senate subcommittee I chair. These are potential violations of election law, and that’s a crime

jack @jack

Our communication around our actions on the @nypost article was not great. And blocking URL sharing via tweet or DM with zero context as to why we’re blocking: unacceptable. https://t.co/v55vDVVlgt

October 15th 2020

10,981 Retweets23,027 Likes

Trump himself took to Twitter to blast the decision to block access to the Post story pending verification. He claimed the incident justified one of his favorite cudgels to get social media to accede to his wishes, the repeal of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which insulates a wide range of websites, including social media sites, from content-related litigation.

Twitter avatar for @realDonaldTrumpDonald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump
So terrible that Facebook and Twitter took down the story of “Smoking Gun” emails related to Sleepy Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, in the @nypost. It is only the beginning for them. There is nothing worse than a corrupt politician. REPEAL SECTION 230!!!
Facebook, Twitter make editorial decisions to limit distribution of story claiming to show ‘smoking gun’ emails related to Biden and his sonFacebook and Twitter made the decision to limit the distribution of a news article from the New York Post that claims to show “smoking gun” emails related to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his son.cnbc.com

October 14th 2020

66,065 Retweets154,335 Likes

After all the confusion and drama, three things are worth noting. One, it’s not yet clear that any foreign threat actor was involved in creating the Post story. The piece could have been cooked up by Guiliani or Murdoch executives without any assistance from Russia or another nation-state.

Two, unlike the 2016 presidential election, the U.S. is not quite the pushover for unverified disinformation campaigns that it once was, which could be a good sign that any late-game hack-and-leak or disinformation efforts by Russia could fizzle.

Three, with little more than two weeks to go before election day, it’s likely that more efforts to sway voters will take place. As I quote Hultquist at the end of my column, “The biggest limiter is our recognition that somebody on the outside is trying to manipulate us. If we recognize that, we can really inoculate ourselves.”

Related: The Hill: Cybersecurity, Business Insider, Protocol, Fortune,  Fox Business, RT USA, Vox, The Sun,  New York Magazine, CNBC Technology, CNBC Technology, Washington Free Beacon, TechCrunch, POLITICO, Daily Kos, The Sun, channelnews, bellingcat, Motherboard, Input,  Daily Dot, Mediaite, Cyberscoop, Mother Jones

Image by Monika Flueckiger, World Economic Forum - originally posted to Flickr as Rupert Murdoch - World Economic Forum Annual Meeting Davos 2009, CC BY-SA 2.0.

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