New ‘mercenary influencers’ are spreading fake news for money to harass political enemies

Ghada Oueiss you think you are in danger.

In 2020, the Lebanese journalist from AlJazeera published an opinion piece in the Washington Post in which he describes how hackers stole his private photos and videos to post them online. After this leak, the virtual attacks began. And with the history of the murder of the journalist jamal khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018, he fears the brutality he experiences online will spill over into the real world.

One of the main protagonists of this ferocious attack against Oueiss was Sharon VanRider, resident of Florida, USA. On June 9, 2020, he retweeted a hacked photo of the reporter in a hot tub. It went viral, in some cases the image was deceptively manipulated to make the woman appear naked. Thousands of users in Saudi Arabia have hurled misogynistic slurs at the journalist, whose prime-time show features tough and incisive interviews with political figures in the Middle East.

As revealed by a six-month survey coordinated by the consortium Forbidden Stories in which 30 European media took part and which focused on disinformation campaigns and attacks against personalities and companies through bots and “digital mercenaries »attacks by Van Rider (who also publicly praised Mohammad bin Salman (MBS), the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia) were relentless: calling her a liar; He accused her of having “sold herself to terrorists to have a story” and of having worked for “a channel that broadcasts anti-Semitism”.

“It was strange that an American citizen, who doesn’t speak Arabic…who doesn’t know me…tweeted about me day and night,” Oueiss said. Forbidden stories.

But now the picture is clearer. Van Rider allegedly received money from the Saudi monarchy in exchange for his tweets, according to an investigation by The weather. Van Rider had met Sattam bin Khalid al Saud, a Saudi prince, in Dubai in April 2019. Months after that meeting, the attacks began.

The Forbidden Stories was able to access official documents which reveal that FBI launched an investigation into Van Rider’s activities, with the goal of finding out who funded him and whether he violated US law. According to what Van Rider said in 2022, he received the money from an intermediary to avoid the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), a US rule that requires any foreign national seeking to influence local public opinion to register with the Department of Justice and file public reports. Failure to do so is a violation of federal law and may result in fines and jail time.

In Van Rider’s case, the method of payment was through a man named Jerry Maherwho, between November 2019 and March 2020, made at least four installments of USD 2,500.

But Van Rider would not be the only one to participate in the Saudi prince’s scheme: he claimed to have attended a meeting in Miami in 2019 during which the Saudi prince allegedly paid some $175,000 (in cash and through a third), to an American. citizen close to right-wing circles. The destination of this money? Fund internet activities that target rivals to the Saudi monarchy.

For-profit disinformation campaigns are commonplace, but the shift to the virtual world means a new kind of mercenary, or “digital influence mercenary”, an area with great future prospects and high demand. There is a monetary motivation, no doubt, but in many cases there can also be an ideological motivation, as is the case, for example, of the supporters of Donald Trump.

Like he said Forbidden Stories Marc Owen Jonesassociate professor of Middle Eastern studies at Hamad bin Khalifa University in Qatar, implicating Americans in a campaign of harassment led by Saudi Arabia makes sense: use bots and trolls. But if you can get Americans to organically absorb Saudi talking points and then replicate them on their own social media, then theoretically those talking points could then go viral among the Republican community online.

Jerry Maher, who acted as an intermediary between the Saudis and Van Rider, already had years of close ties with this Arab monarchy. Born Daniel Ahmad El Ghoch, he is a former Saudi TV presenter and CEO of Sawt Beirut International. He is also a media adviser to Bahaa Hariri, a Saudi-Lebanese billionaire close to the Saudi regime.

He left Lebanon in 2010 and moved to Sweden, where the authorities granted him a protected status, reserved for those subject to threats, in order to guarantee the confidentiality of his personal information. There began the voracity of his attacks on the web, directed against critics of the Saudi regime. when they murdered jamal khashoggiMaher tweeted that those investigating the murder would “burn in hell”.

In January 2019, he attacked Jeff Bezos, Founder and Owner of Amazon Washington Post“If you become an enemy of Saudi Arabia, you will be destroyed, belittled and fired by God.”

In February 2019, Oueiss herself invited Maher to her show, where he defended Saudi Arabia’s position on Khashoggi’s killing. But later, behind the camera, Maher told Oueiss that he believed MBS ordered the assassination.. “He is capable of being the spokesperson for a dictatorship. He can do anything for you if you pay him,” the reporter said.

Oueiss interpreted Khashoggi’s murder as a warning. “Maybe what they did to Khashoggi would happen to me because they attacked him on social media and then killed him,” he said. Forbidden stories. She considered Khashoggi to be her mentor.

When the attacks on her began, Oueiss headlined her opinion piece for The Washington Post as follows: “I am a journalist from the Middle East. Online attacks will not silence me”. A group of Trump supporters rushed in to reinforce the attacks.

Van Rider named Maria Maalouf in his statement to the FBI as part of the “media project” targeting Oueiss and alleged that he was financed by Al Saud. Maalouf is a Lebanese-born journalist based in Washington DC who claims to be the co-president of Prolific Solutions, a consulting firm.

According to research by Forbidden Storiesanother professional influencer who attacked Oueiss online is Irina Tsukerman, a New York-based attorney who echoes narratives akin to those in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates in videos, opinion pieces and television appearances. “Tsukerman offers ‘offensive’ and ‘defensive’ ‘information warfare’ services through his US-based company, Scarab Rising, and advocates with the UN Human Rights Council from a sleazy Yemeni NGO, the Yemeni Coalition of Independent Women,” the survey reveals.

According to Owen Jones, there will always be a space for “attack dog” because there is a constant market for someone who is “not afraid to say anything” but also “who has degrees from a good university”.

Meanwhile, Ouessis continues to block his attackers on Twitter. But sometimes, the weight of this virtual violence is too much: “It’s a new way to virtually kill journalists, silence them. Instead of paying someone to physically murder you, you pay someone to virtually murder you through social media.

With information from Forbidden Stories

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