Russian Funding of US and Canadian Political Influencers

Information Incident
Last updated: September 19th, 2024

Overview

  • Charges: On September 4, the United States Department of Justice released an indictment against two Russian nationals, alleging that they funded a media company – since identified as Tenet Media – to spread Russian propaganda on social media.

  • Canadian involvement: Tenet Media’s owners, Canadian influencer Lauren Chen and her husband Liam Donovan, allegedly accepted almost $10 million USD from the Russian-government funded media outlet RT in exchange for promoting Kremlin-approved narratives through Tenet’s network of American and Canadian online personalities.

  • Why it’s important: Russian disinformation campaigns are a known threat to the Canadian information ecosystem. The scrutiny of and evidence against Tenet Media joins a growing list of Russian interference efforts in Canada.

Incident Updates

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Incident Update 1︱Exploring RT, Russian Operations and the role of and impact on Canada

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Information Incident Notification︱ Russian Funding of US and Canadian Political Influencers 
Information Incident Notification︱ Russian Funding of US and Canadian Political Influencers 

On September 4, 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) unsealed charges against two employees of Russian state media network RT for conspiracy to violate the American Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and conspiracy to commit money laundering. The indictment describes a nearly $10 million USD scheme to create and propagate content that aligns with Russian political motives through an unnamed American company. 

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Incident Timeline

Spring 2021

Lauren Chen is said to have begun working for the parent company of RT.

19 January 2022

Tenet Media is incorporated in Tennessee.

March 2022

RT is banned in Canada, the United States and other countries, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

December 2022

Chen (identified as Founder-1 in the indictment) starts working for “Eduard Grigoriann” to launch a new Youtube channel.

Spring 2023

Chen, Donovan and RT operatives work to recruit headlining names to be part of the network.

May 2023

Tenet Media applies for its current operating name.

November 2023

Tenet Media publicly launches. Over the following 10 months, it posts over 2000 videos on YouTube, accumulating more than 16 million views.

4 September 2024

The DoJ unseals its indictment.

5 September 2024

Tenet Media and Lauren Chen’s other channels are removed from YouTube.

6 September 2024

Canadian Public Safety Minister announces that the federal government is collaborating with the United States on the issue.

Key Contacts

  • Alexei Abrahams, Digital Lead, Media Ecosystem Observatory (alexei.abrahams@mcgill.ca)
    Expertise: Social network analysis/Digital trace, media observatories

    Aengus Bridgman, Director, Media Ecosystem Observatory (aengus.bridgman@mcgill.ca)
    Expertise: Political science, social network analysis

    Jennie Phillips, Project Director, Project on Infrastructure Ecosystem Resilience, Media Ecosystem Observatory, (jennie.phillips@mcgill.ca) Expertise : Research Project lead/research design

  • Derek Ruths, Data scientist, Network Dynamics Lab (derek@derekruths.com)

    Expertise: Social network analysis, social media analysis, hate speech, online user behavior studies

  • Elizabeth Dubois, Director, PolCommTech Research Lab (elizabeth.dubois@uottawa.ca)

    Expertise: Bots

  • Fenwick Mckelvey, co-Director, Applied AI Institute (fenwick.mckelvey@concordia.ca) Expertise: Generative AI

  • Philip Mai, Senior Researcher and Co-Director, Social Media Lab, (philip.mai@torontomu.ca)

    Expertise : Social network analysis