Day traders utilized social media platform Discord, which has chatrooms dedicated to stock movements and cryptocurrency trading, to manipulate the value of certain holdings by latching onto real or imagined events before selling. Pro-Russian accounts, both overt and covert, joined in on the manipulation, with the most well-known being RT, which was previously identified as government-affiliated before Elon Musk removed warning labels on Twitter. Other pro-Russian accounts that typically report on the conflict in Ukraine also participated. Experts noted the effort put into amplifying the hoax, including the use of seemingly legitimate accounts that frequently post factual information. The State Department declined to comment on the matter.
Russian media and social media accounts often use anything that could create division in the United States, including fake disasters, to sow fear and chaos. The "troll factory" in St. Petersburg used fake US accounts to push real alarm over an explosion at a fictional chemical plant in Louisiana in 2014. Experts have said that the world of stock promotion and Russian propaganda has overlapped before, with the anti-establishment Twitter account and website Zero Hedge promoting the Pentagon hoax. The cryptocurrency realm is even more susceptible to this, with promoters arguing for a decentralised system often emphasising US disasters and openly rooting for Russia. With Twitter users now able to ask for paid subscriptions or tips, the pursuit of hot news will probably accelerate the spread of false information in multiple online worlds.
