A handful of American actors from productions including “The Lord of the Rings” and “The Office” have been targeted in a pro-Russia propaganda tactic through the platform Cameo.
Cameo users send specific instructions to celebrities for them to create personalized videos. If your aunt was diagnosed with an illness, you could request Floyd Mayweather to make a video saying, “I hope you get well soon!”
Pro-Russia organizations started using Cameo in July 2023, according to the biannual report from Microsoft Threat Analysis Center. Celebrities including Elijah Wood, Mike Tyson, John McGinley, Dean Norris, Kate Flannery, Priscilla Presley and Shavo Odadjiand were paid to create videos encouraging a man named “Vladimir” to get help for a substance abuse issue.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has long been attacked by Russian state-sponsored propaganda and Kremlin officials for being a substance abuser, the report said. However, the report added that this campaign was unprecedented “in the online information space.”
These videos were altered before they were posted to numerous social media sites to include Ukraine emojis, tags to Zelenskyy’s Instagram account and links to addiction treatment facilities, including Hazelden Betty Ford.
Between July and October 2023, six videos were in circulation, and in mid-August, Russian state-owned domestic news agency RIA Novosti included McGinley’s Cameo video in an article, “as if it were an authentic appeal from McGinley to Zelensky,” per the report.
Cameo said that this type of video request would “violate Cameo’s Community Guidelines, and in cases where such violations are substantiated Cameo will typically take steps to remove the problematic content and suspend the purchaser’s account to help prevent further issues,” per CBS.
This isn’t the first time pro-Russia propaganda has tried to use American celebrities as leverage.
In November, Wired reported on a series of ads made by pairing fabricated anti-Ukraine quotes with celebrities’ photos. A photo of Taylor Swift appears next to the quote, “Now, how long will this take? The Ukrainians behave like charlatans and we continue to pay. That is not right.”
A photo of Selena Gomez is paired with, “Every time the Ukrainians get money, everything goes wrong.” Kim Kardashian appears similarly, saying in German, “It’s just disappointing how the Ukrainians use our help. Someone needs to stop this, seriously.”
Just on Facebook, the “disinformation campaign” was seen by 7.6 million people, per Wired.
