Author: Robert Břešťan, HlidaciPes.org, Czech republic
A few years ago, John Mark Dougan, a former deputy sheriff in Palm Beach, Florida, changed his life from the ground up. He moved to Russia and put his natural command of English fully at the service of propaganda there. Although few people know about him, his activities have repercussions throughout Europe.
Although John Dougan made it all the way to deputy sheriff in his career, he clearly did not live a happy and successful life. He faced personal bankruptcy and foreclosure in the US, allegations of excessive use of force and sexual harassment as a police officer for which he had to answer in court, and a warrant for his arrest in Florida. His story was brought to the attention of The New York Times.
It is not very likely that he plans to return to the United States. He went to Russia, got political asylum there, and at the age of 51, with the support of the Kremlin, launched a whole new career.
He has gradually built an ever-growing network of websites – now numbering at least 160 – that reach a global audience through English-language texts. Primarily in the USA and the UK, but also in France and indirectly in many other countries, including the Czech Republic.
To confront the lie with the truth
“As far as new websites and other methods of spreading Russian propaganda are concerned, Russia is turning the principles of democracy and freedom of speech against us,” Michal Koudelka, director of the Czech counterintelligence agency BIS, told HlídacíPes.org.
But the defence, he says, remains the same: “Confront the lie with the truth and do it quickly, clearly and through a generally respected personality. In the long run, education is essential, because an educated target is the nightmare of every disinformer, something we’ve been saying for years, so that the public knows and is able to understand modern history, so that there is media literacy and so on,” he said.
The long-term problem, he says, is also that disinformation is and will be free, while serious news and information is increasingly paid for, behind a paywall.
This is evidenced by looking at the flood of “Dougan sites”. According to an analysis by the expert website NewsGuard, their outputs were quoted or mentioned in news articles in at least eight thousand cases between last September and this May and, thanks to their dissemination via social networks, were seen by more than 37 million people in 16 languages.
Just pretend to be serious
The site creates the appearance of a reputable source through its choice of titles that evoke established media outlets: the Chicago Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle, Miami Chronicle, The DC Weekly, The London Crier, New York News Daily, The Boston Times, The Houston Post, and others. The oldest site within this group is the DC Weekly, and it was founded in April 2021, when Dougan was still in the U.S. The vast majority of the other sites were founded in the first half of this year, in Russia.
These are then quoted by Russian state media and spread further through the established disinformation ecosystem.
The various misinformation and conspiracy theories then go on to take on a life of their own on other related social media accounts and websites in individual countries.
It is also significant how Russian propaganda, and the very websites created by Dougan, are using the advent and capabilities of artificial intelligence. They are able to produce literally thousands of texts in a short time, which are based on real events for greater credibility.
Usually, therefore, these are somehow altered or even outright fabricated reports and conspiracy theories and texts attacking the state of Western society or questioning aid to Ukraine and describing the war against Ukraine from the Russian perspective.
An example is an article on a website pretending to be the established title of the San Francisco Chronicle about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky allegedly smuggling 300 kilograms of cocaine out of Argentina.
This post was also published on some Czech websites this spring. Zelensky smuggled 300 kg of cocaine from Argentina when he flew to the inauguration of President Milei.
He linked to the San Francisco Chronicle, an existing serious newspaper, on whose name and under a different web domain Dougan’s project parasitizes. The proxy on that site is now broken, with a note that “this account is under investigation or has been found to be in violation.”
