“… Trump and his inner circle have been vocal in their support. AfD co-leader Alice Weidel was invited to Trump’s inauguration, and Elon Musk spoke at an AfD election campaign event in January.

Musk said that banning the “centrist AfD” would be an “extreme attack on democracy.””

#AfD
#ddrm

And SDA is just one example.

It shows how Russia is evolving from old-school propaganda to state-aligned influence firms:
– Creative
– Professional
– Networked
– Subtle

They don’t create noise.
They design narratives.

#DeceptionByDesign1

Western institutions have underestimated this shift.

Platform takedowns often focus on surface-level accounts.

But the real operation is modular, scalable, and built to survive visibility.

It’s meant to look like normal content—even local opinion.

Qurium has just released a report on one of the fake videos previously promoted by the Matryoshka influence operation:

"Russian disinformation against Zelenskyy exposed on Times Square billboard"

www.qurium.org/press-releas...

“Russian propaganda on Bluesky first became notable during Germany’s elections last year, when the Kremlin sought to bolster Germany’s far right, led by the Alternative for Germany party, known as AfD.”

#giftlink #disinformation #propaganda

This model matters because it changes how we think about disinfo:

It’s not chaos.
It’s not crowdsourced.

It’s commissioned strategic communication, with political objectives, KPIs, and feedback loops.

Think less “trolls.” Think more “Black PR.”

SDA has:
– Clients (usually Russian state actors)
– Campaign pitches and proposals
– Project timelines
– Performance metrics
– Teams for design, targeting, and amplification

This isn’t ad hoc. It’s planned, pitched, and professionalized.

The IRA was tactical.
SDA is strategic.

Where the Internet Research Agency ran sockpuppet operations, SDA runs full-spectrum narrative influence campaigns across media, platforms, and political themes.

It behaves more like a PR agency than a troll farm.

Most people still imagine disinformation as noisy trolls, low-effort memes, and crude fake accounts.

That picture is outdated.

The Social Design Agency (SDA) shows how far the Kremlin’s playbook has evolved.

#DeceptionByDesign1

🧵 Troll Farms Aren’t the Problem: How Disinformation Got Professional

#DeceptionByDesign1

Source: Beyond Operation Doppelgänger (Pamment & Tsurtsumia, 2025)

mpf.se/psychological...