The right -wing crusade against USAID is fuel by lies

The video claimed that the United States Agency for International Development paid millions of dollars to Ben Stiller, Angelina Jolie and other actors to travel to Ukraine, which appeared to be a clip from e -nuse Also did not appear on the entertainment channel.

In fact, the video has said in an account on the first X which was said by the researchers. Russian disintegration spreads.

Within a few hours it attracted the attention of Elon Musk, which rebuilt it. So is President Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr.

He extended false videos as Mr. Musk suppressed a crusade to shut down USAID, the agency that distributed most of the government’s foreign aid since 1961. As head of a government proficiency campaign with the blessings of Mr. Trump, Mr. Musk and others of the administration have informed the agency’s headquarters, frozen grants and employees that almost all of them would be closed.

The agency is disintegrating with an edge of online anger from right -wing affected and accounts that are promoting false claims and conspiratorial thinking.

While some politicians and voters have long questioned the value of foreign aid, the agency has often distorted the facts and, wisely or unknowingly, hugged anything that USAID Can help target

It includes Mr. Musk, who has used the platform used as a megaphone in 2022 as a megaphone. On Sunday, Mr. Musk called it a “criminal organization”, without explaining the basis for such an allegation.

“He is exploiting ignorance about the way he works as the government, and whatever he is doing is lacking,” Mike Rothschild, a disruptive researcher and “Jewish Space Laser” A book said about the principles of the author, conspiracy. “All this is incredibly dangerous, and is getting correct in front of us.”

The hurdle of the attacks also underlined once again how much Republican views have conveyed on the platform of Sri Musk, especially on the stage of Mr. Musk, with the promotion emanating from the Kremlin or with their international goals. According to the Media Forensic Hub of the University of Claymson, the wrong video about celebrities is an impact campaign that has produced dozens of similar fakes about the war of Russia in Ukraine.

“Russian anti -Ukraine propaganda has completely infiltrated some communities on X,” a researcher Darren L. Linville said, who discovered the spread of fake clips from its origin on X, which has previously distributed Russian fakes.

“Seeing how much time Musk spends on his stage,” Dr. “It was probably unavoidable that some fed Russian messages would resonate with him, and it was almost designed to do so,” Linville said.

Neither Mr. Musk nor Donald Trump Jr. immediately responded to requesting the remarks.

The X did not immediately respond to a request to comment on the spread of misinformation about usaid on the platform, although it added a note to the posts sharing videos about the actors, seeing that it is not real Is.

Most of this week’s mania is focused on several grants of online USAID, about which information has been available in public for years.

For example, a viral claim started after an account on X, with more than half a million followers suggested that Politico, Washington News website, had received more than $ 8 million from USAID.

This was not true. The website received around $ 44,000 for its premium environment and membership for energy publication in two years from USAID, and more than $ 8 million in membership revenue from various types of agencies including the Department of Energy.

Nevertheless, the claim was rapidly shot on social media, as even more followers with the affected and politicians enhanced the idea.

This stopped a round of other misleading claims about giving money to USAID to BBC and New York Times. (The agency instead has given money to an independent donation that shares a name With BBCThe most viral claims about the New York Times were based on a wrong discovery of government records, including unrelated, but gram to uniform groups such as New York University. In a statementThe Times stated that the payment received was for membership; Government data show It has also received some advertising revenue from the government. In a memorandum for employees, Politico leaders said that the publication was “never a beneficiary of government programs or subsidy.”)

The facts failed to reach an important audience online, but misinformed information was raised within hours by major podcasters, politicians and trump colleagues.

The accounts dedicated to sharing the principles of the conspiracy said that the claims were evidence in any way that the Democrats used USAID for the “fake news empire”.

By Wednesday afternoon, Victor Orban, the Prime Minister and the Hungarian leader, wandering in the United States, echoed the claims, wrote on the X that the payment to the Politico somehow funds “the entire leftist media in Hungary”. -The viral post that was received more. More than 26 million times.

Soon the idea spread to the Oval office, where Mr. Trump used his true social account to criticize the news membership of the government – the payment that was also done during his first presidential post – “Good stories about Democrats Create as “Payment”.

“This can be the biggest scam of all of them, perhaps the biggest in history!” He wrote in the all-cap on Thursday morning as other users demanded a criminal investigation.

White House press secretary Karolin Lewitt announces that the administration would cancel all political membership. On Thursday, the Agriculture Department said it had canceled its Politico membership.

For Russia and China, the US conservative uproar over USAID has been shocked.

Echoing Mr. Orban’s complaint, both nations have convicted the agency for supporting destructive programs in their countries.

Chen Vihua, a major bureau chief and columnist for the state news organization China Daily, cited a report about the agency’s funding for the previous claims of China. He suggested that BBC reporters in China were “bought” by the Central Intelligence Agency and the British Secret Service, Mi6.

“If you have questions why BBC reporters in China kill China in all these years and talk on BS, then you can now get the answer,” they have written on X.

Russian President Vladimir V. Putin banned the USAID grant in 2012 and expelled the agency workers accusing the United States of his rule. (Officials of Republican and Democratic Administration have argued that programs only promoted civil society in Russia.)

Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova also ridiculed a series of grants criticized in the United States, and claimed that the agency’s inherent objectives have been in 2011, Ukraine, citing the protests in Egypt in 2014 in Egypt in 2014, Ukraine. It was to promote and Georgia last year.

The false video that goes viral this week USAID Funded Celebrity Yatra claims Russia’s recurring story abroad that the United States supports Ukraine with resources that American voters will spend at home.

According to Clamson’s Media Forensic Hub, after the Russian nesting doll, the video known for the researchers known for the researchers as operation surcharge or matriarchs seemed to be an impact campaign. That work is headed by a private company with a link to Kremlin.

The footage featured a number of famous actors’ meetings or clips with Ukraine leader, Volodimier Zelansky, while a narrator with a British accent claimed that the actors had received large payments from USAID for appearance.

Ms. Jolie, the narrator says, received $ 20 million; Orlando Bloom, $ 8 million; And Sean Penn, $ 5 million; And so on. The narrator claims, “This was done to increase popularity in the United States, especially among the foreign audiences of Zelancesi.” “The participation of famous celebrities made it easy for Ukraine to coordinate money programs during the struggle.”

After the video appeared on the X account, the articles about its claims appeared on at least two Russian news organizations, Zargrad and Sites of Pravada. The video was picked up by several accounts, which have earlier shared Russian disintegration, but soon moved beyond this and cheered the Americans to the Trump administration. By Thursday, users of Tiktok and Sri Trump’s Satya Social Forum shared the video as the commentators expressed displeasure and called the USAID to end.

There is no evidence of payment in any agency’s program. A spokesman of E! The news also said in a statement that “the video is not authentic and has not originated from e -state.”

Actor Ben Still said that $ 4 million was paid for Ukraine’s visit to Ukraine’s visit, taken on social media to try to refute the claim. “These are lies coming from Russian media,” he wrote on X. “I completely funded my human journey in Ukraine. There was no money from USAID and certainly no payment.”

Supporters with more conspiratorial minds of Mr. Musk continue to please the billionaire anyway.

He was a food service worker and the veteran of the Army National Guard who were Accidentally convicted To initiate a conspiracy theory about American biological weapons laboratories in Ukraine in 2022. In attacking USAID, he wrote in a post on X and Telegram this week, Mr. Musk expanded the alleged support of the agency for the media to highlight “an Orwellian Diastopia”.

“We live on the foundation of lies,” he said.