Election Security
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Fraud Management & Cybercrime
Doppelganger Unsuccessfully Attempted to Distort Election, UK Minister Said
A Russian government-directed foreign influence campaign unsuccessfully attempted to disrupt the 2024 U.K. elections, a British security minister told a parliamentary committee.
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Speaking at the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy on election security on Monday, Dan Jarvis, minister of state for security, said the U.K. government identified disinformation networks linked to Russian influence campaign widely tracked as Doppelganger, which attempted to disrupt the electoral process during the July 2024 U.K. elections.
Due to swift response from the U.K. government, the impact of the campaign was largely subdued, Jarvis said.
“The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office monitored known Russian foreign manipulation and interference networks. We saw Russian-attributed networks such as Doppelganger promote pro-Russian messages with an intent to disrupt normal function and voting processes; however, this was judged to have caused a notable impact,” Jarvis told the committee.
Doppelganger has been associated with Moscow-based firms Social Design Agency and Structura National Technologies. Operating under the direction of the Russian Presidential Administration, Doppelganger promotes pro-Kremlin narratives through a network of fake articles, cloned websites and social media manipulation. Authorities in the United States seized 32 internet domains in September 2024 used in Doppelganger campaigns and announced sanctions on 10 individuals and two Russian organizations for their role in influencing the U.S. presidential election (see: US Targets Russian Media and Hackers Over Election Meddling).
The European Union in December 2024 sanctioned two Kremlin officials linked to Doppelganger.
The U.K. government has been working with the Five Eyes and other international governments to disrupt such activities, Maggie Jones, parliamentary under-secretary of state for future digital economy and online safety, told British lawmakers.
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