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A viral video of Protestants burning a Bible in Portland may have been reinforced as part of a Russian disinformation campaign.
In the video, a couple of Protestants appear to be throwing a Bible on a fire. Although other Protestants in the area did not appear to be responding to the incident, the video, captured and shared by Russia Today owned by video recorder Ruptly, became a sensation among right-wing media pundits and politicians as proof that the Protestants are wicked book burners.
The video was shot several nights by Ruptly and became a leading story on the news site Russian-government-owned Russian Today.
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While it was true that a few Protestants burned at least one Bible, the story was misunderstood to depict the scene as a mass group of Protestants burning a stack of Bibles.
One Twitter user, Ian Michael Cheong – who is Malay but portrays himself as a right-wing American political pundit – retweeted the video titled “Left-wing activists bring a stack of Bibles to burn in front of the federal courthouse in Portland.”
The video does not show the location of the fire, contains no more than two Protestants, does not show a stack of Bibles and does not show the political ideologies of the people who burned the Bible.
The protesters at the fire respond only when an American flag is thrown at the fire, after which they cheer.
According to local news reports about the protest, another group of Protestants tried to put out the fire, but that scene was not included in the Ruptly video, nor was it mentioned in the Russia Today story.
Mr. Cheong regularly shares videos of the Portland protest and is not involved in any targeted production or distribution of the video other than his retweeting.
“It was definitely not my intention to just ride the one story,” Mr Cheong said The New York Times.
Mr Cheong’s tweet was retweeted by Republican lawmakers such as Senator Ted Cruz who said “This is who they are”, and painted the entire Protestant with a wide brush.
The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., also retweeted the video.
“Now we’re moving on to the phase of the burning book. I’m pretty sure ANTIFA does not really stand for what they say it stands for. Maybe just remove the anti-part of them. [sic] name and it’s perfect, “he wrote
There is no evidence that the Protestants who burned the Bible had no connection with Antifa or shared political ideologies associated with anti-fascist movements.
The New York Times reported that U.S. intelligence officials have informed lawmakers about both secret and overt Russian disinformation tactics, which are now thought to be aimed at using U.S. and English-language news websites to send stories to right-wing and left-wing news consumers that are likely to attract divisions and anger .
Long before George Floyd’s protests erupted, U.S. intelligence officials had apparently warned lawmakers that Russia would likely try to infiltrate racial divisions in the country in an attempt to wreak havoc before the 2020 U.S. election.
It is important to note that unnamed U.S. intelligence officials – often used as sources by The New York Times and other national media parks – were also cited as sources that fueled the misinformation that helped sell the Iraq war to the American public.
Officials say the Ruptly video points to Russia’s latest strategy for discipline among the American public.
Unlike 2016, in which Russian intelligence was accused of using Twitter bots and fake social media accounts to disguise conspiracy theories and disinformation, intelligence officials claim the nation’s new strategy is to adopt singularity, for the most part partly isolated events such as the Bible burning in Portland and blowing up its meaning.
From there, the stories turn to left- and right-wing news sites – some of which regularly conspire conspiracy theories – to reinforce and use as a kindling for the fire of America’s expanded political divisions.
“Russian intelligence has become more versatile and has more resources in its use of online disinformation,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat.
His claims were based on a US State Department report that targeted Russian disinformation campaigns on the US.
“The methods used in 2016 seem almost rudimentary and charming,” he said.
Websites such as Inforos, which US officials say are being exploited by Russian military intelligence, have perpetuated conspiracy theories and coronavirus disinformation, as well as stories intended to undermine American confidence in NATO.
Other websites, such as InfoBrics, have direct links with the KGB successor intelligence agency GRU. The site helped spread the narrative that former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko was behind the downing of a Malay Airlines flight over Ukraine. Investigators later learned that Russian missiles were what destroyed the airline.
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