The Media

Report: FBI Investigating Right Wing Websites for Possible Russia Ties

Written by SK Ashby

We already know right wing websites like Breitbart and InfoWars distributed a mountain of bullshit during the 2016 election, and we already know bots were used to spread fake news during the election, but the FBI is reportedly investigating the possibility that the two sides coordinated their efforts.

According to McClatchy, the FBI is investigating the possibility because the publication of explosive fake news stories and the promotion of them through bots seemed to coincide with Trump's poll numbers taking a dive.

Operatives for Russia appear to have strategically timed the computer commands, known as “bots,” to blitz social media with links to the pro-Trump stories at times when the billionaire businessman was on the defensive in his race against Democrat Hillary Clinton, these sources said.

The bots’ end products were largely millions of Twitter and Facebook posts carrying links to stories on conservative internet sites such as Breitbart News and InfoWars, as well as on the Kremlin-backed RT News and Sputnik News, the sources said.

Notably, this investigation is being handled by the FBI's counter-intelligence division which is an indication that they already have some degree of confidence that foreign intelligence operatives were involved.

I posit that InfoWars would have published the same insane bullshit regardless of the political situation because that's what Alex Jones has been doing for 20 years, but Breitbart is a more complicated story primarily because former Breitbarters are now members of Trump's White House staff. This could be the first link between former Breitbart chief Steve Bannon and Russian intelligence.