An American social media influencer said he was paid $100 by a pro-Kremlin propagandist to post a fake video of Haitian immigrants claiming to vote in the US presidential election. The payment was one of several the man said he received from the propagandist- a registered Russian agent - to post on social media in the run-up to the election.
The pro-Trump influencer, who uses the @AlphaFox78 handle on X, is an American man living in Massachusetts, CNN has learned. He agreed to speak to CNN about the posts on condition of anonymity.
The account, which has a history of posting right-wing memes in support of former President Donald Trump, was the first to post the now-debunked video that purportedly showed a Haitian immigrant claiming he would vote at least twice in Georgia for Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Georgia Secretary of State said everything in that video was faked, from the actors to the ID cards, and was produced and disseminated by Russian influence actors.
In phone and text interviews with CNN over multiple days, the person behind the account, which has amassed more than 650,000 followers on X, said he posted the video without fact-checking the claims made in it.
“I don’t have any idea where it came from or anything - I’m just the guy who shared it,” he said.
The man said Simeon Boikov, a Russian propagandist podcaster known online as “AussieCossack,” offered him $100 to post the video, which he agreed to. A person with knowledge of the situation confirmed to CNN that multiple payments were sent from Boikov to the Massachusetts man.
Documents reviewed by CNN show that Boikov is a registered foreign agent for Russia in Australia, where he works for Russian state media, writing and posting online in English and Russian.
Boikov, who was recently given Russian citizenship and is seeking asylum in the Russian consulate in Sydney, has a history of posting pro-Kremlin disinformation. A previous CNN investigation found that Boikov has played a role in Russia’s disinformation campaigns, including ones targeting the 2024 US presidential election.
But his exact role and where he sits inside the disinformation network’s hierarchy, remains elusive.
The working relationship between AlphaFox and Boikov which has not been previously reported, reveals yet another means in which Russia has attempted to inject disinformation into the 2024 presidential election. US and European intelligence sources previously told CNN that Russia’s disinformation network produces staged propaganda videos that are later promoted by American social media influencers.
Much as a legitimate business would rely on a popular influencer to boost its sales, Russian operatives are also targeting online figures to leverage their highly engaged followers, according to Darren Linvill, a disinformation expert and co-director of the Media Forensics Hub at Clemson University.
“There is a reason marketing companies and political campaigns both use social media influencers to promote their messages, they do it because it works,” Linvill told CNN. “The digital world has become the real world, and people trust social media influencers like they trust their real-world friends.”
Boikov, and an associate based in Russia, did not respond to CNN requests for comment. AlphaFox said that Boikov explicitly told him not to speak to CNN and has since blocked him on the platform Telegram.
The FBI did not comment on the payments. The Russian and Australian Foreign Ministries did not respond to CNN requests for comment.
The price of disinformation: $100 a pop
On their social media accounts, both Boikov and AlphaFox have repeatedly shared narratives that the US intelligence community has determined originated with a Russian disinformation network dubbed “Storm-1516.”
AlphaFox said the staged Georgia video wasn’t the first time he was paid to post content on his X account. On roughly 10 other occasions, Boikov paid him $100 to post memes and videos on the account, he said.
“It started with memes, and it seemed innocent,” he told CNN.
When Boikov’s requests then shifted to posting election-related videos, like the fake Georgia voter fraud footage, “I didn’t think anything of it,” he said.
He insisted to CNN he did not know Boikov worked for Russian state media.
AlphaFox sent CNN cropped screenshots that he said showed him questioning Boikov about the authenticity of the video before he posted it. But Boikov purportedly responded that he had no reason to doubt the video’s authenticity and that “some big accounts have posted it.”
“My guard was down because it’s just sharing memes,” AlphaFox said, repeatedly justifying his posts to CNN by saying he didn’t realize what he was getting himself into.
After speaking with CNN, AlphaFox deleted the post, which at the time had generated more than 2.6 million views.
He also admitted he was paid to post content that targeted Harris and second gentleman Doug Emhoff, claiming that the couple had tipped off embattled musician Sean “Diddy” Combs ahead of Homeland Security raids. The US intelligence community has since determined that the claim originated as a Russian influence operation.
Deleted video’s message lives on
AlphaFox said he was remorseful for sharing Russian disinformation, and adamant that he was the one who was tricked.
“People need to be more vigilant when they share things,” he told CNN. “I never wanted to misinform anyone.”
AlphaFox believes himself to be just “the guy who shared” a disinformation video. But that role is key to Russia’s plan to disrupt the US election, according to Linvill, the disinformation expert.
“Real people have become important vehicles of Russian disinformation. It’s not all about fake accounts anymore,” Linvill said. “Storm-1516 has been successful because it takes advantage of the trust users have in influencers they have followed for years.”
While AlphaFox removed the fake Georgia video the following day, after it had been viewed more than half a million times on X, various forms of the video continue to be shared on social media platforms.
As Americans cast their ballots in the presidential race, election officials like Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger have been forced to dedicate resources to knocking down disinformation like the video posted by AlphaFox.
“As Americans, we can’t let our enemies use lies to divide us and undermine our faith in our institutions - or each other,” Raffensperger said in a statement calling the video “likely a production of Russian troll farms.”
Despite the foreign influence efforts, AlphaFox continues to post on X, including about the 2024 election, and the posts continue to receive significant attention, some with millions of views.