Influence by Design: How Meta Accepted Russian Propaganda Payments Despite Sanctions
Titled Influence by Design: Doppelgänger, Sanctions, Meta, and the Social Design Agency (SDA), the report sheds light on how Meta’s advertising infrastructure was used to run over 8,000 political ads aligned with Russian interests, even after international sanctions targeted the responsible entity: the Social Design Agency (SDA). This highlights Meta’s shortcomings at moderating paid-for content.
The SDA, a Russian IT firm with strong ties to the Kremlin, is at the heart of this investigation. SDA was previously flagged for running the “Doppelgänger” operation, impersonating media brands by creating false news websites to spread disinformation. A new development was enabled by a leak of internal SDA documents first obtained by Delfi Estonia and Süddeutsche Zeitung. We had access to this trove of information and dug deeper. With campaigns targeting France, Germany, Poland, and Italy, the SDA sought to undermine democratic institutions while strategically evading sanctions imposed by the EU, US, and UK.
The report reveals the precision and sophistication of SDA’s methods. Tailored to ongoing political events, their ads employed inflammatory narratives and visually compelling content to maximize reach and impact. Notable examples include rapid-response campaigns designed to exploit incidents like the Hamas-led attack in October 2023, further amplifying divisive narratives.
