Maffick LLC is a

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digital content company based in

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that has been labelled a

Russian Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including: *Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...

state-backed entity by

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and

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due to its connections to German-based Maffick Media GmbH, which was majority owned by RT (Russia Today) subsidiary

Ruptly Ruptly GmbH is a Russian state-owned video news agency specializing in video-on-demand, based in Berlin, Germany. It is a subsidiary of the Russian state-controlled television network RT. Ruptly owns the media channel Redfish and is the major ...

. In December 2021, Maffick LLC registered under the Foreign Agent Registration Act (FARA) as being financed by

ANO TV-Novosti RT (formerly Russia Today or Rossiya Segodnya (russian: Россия Сегодня) is a Russian state-controlled international news television network funded by the Russian government. It operates pay television and free-to-air channels ...

. It was incorporated in 2019, while its main channel is ''In the Now'', launched in 2016. On February 28, 2022, CEO

Anissa Naouai Anissa Naouai (born August 17, 1982) is an American journalist and former television presenter. She is the CEO of Maffick, Maffick Media, a Berlin-based digital media company with Russian links, as of February 2019. Early life Naouai was born in ...

terminated Maffick's service agreement with RT following the

2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides. It has caused Europe's largest refugee crisis since World War II. An ...

Brands

According to CNN, Maffick "videos are generally critical of U.S. foreign policy and the mainstream American media, while largely avoiding criticism of the Russian government." Its content is targeted at American millennials. The company operates three major channels: ''In the Now'' (ITN), ''Wasted-ED'', and ''Soapbox''. By mid-2018, ''In The Now'' had three million likes on

; by mid-2020, it had five million followers. Maffick appears affiliated with a similar group, Maffick Moscow, which runs a

Russian-language Russian (russian: русский язык, russkij jazyk, link=no, ) is an East Slavic language mainly spoken in Russia. It is the native language of the Russians, and belongs to the Indo-European language family. It is one of four living Eas ...

website and social media accounts. Maffick launched a political

podcast A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosing ...

on Apple Podcast,

Spotify Spotify (; ) is a proprietary Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 456 million monthly active us ...

, and

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in October 2021, under the brand Maffick Podcasts, called ''Left Bitches (who are Right).''

History

In The Now

''In The Now'' began as a programme on RT, fronted by Anissa Naouai, which became a stand-alone entity in June 2016. '' BuzzFeed News'' described it as "news served hot with a side of smile and a big dollop of propaganda". ''In The Now'' changed its Twitter handle from @InTheNowRT to @InTheNow_Tweet, but used the same

IP address An Internet Protocol address (IP address) is a numerical label such as that is connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication.. Updated by . An IP address serves two main functions: network interface ident ...

as RT.

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

observed Maffick's content, for instance on the Syrian civil war, promoted pro-Russian geopolitical positions. Early viral hits included Canadian blogger

Eva Bartlett Eva Karene Bartlett is an American Canadians, American Canadian activist, commentator, and blogger who has propagated conspiracy theories in connection to the Syrian civil war, most notably the disproven allegation that the White Helmets (Syria ...

defending the legitimacy of the 2014 Syrian presidential election, another attacking Syria's White Helmets civil defence volunteers, and one of Naouai describing messages from civilians in besieged Aleppo as "a coordinated PR campaign". Both videos were promoted by RT, Russian embassies, and then right-wing social media personalities, although RT stated that the platform was editorially independent from the main news channel. According to the

Atlantic Council The Atlantic Council is an American think tank in the field of international affairs, favoring Atlanticism, founded in 1961. It manages sixteen regional centers and functional programs related to international security and global economic prosp ...

's Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRL), RT's parent company,

, had registered ''In The Now''s website. DFRL also reported that its audience in the US was concentrated among 18-24 year olds. The DFRL described the content as mostly non-ideological, but added that the 8% of content which was deemed ideological had a strong pro-Russian slant; the report alleged various inaccuracies in this content, such as the statement that

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

was involved in the Bosnian conflict to “surround Russia” or that

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

censored anti-

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, diplomat, and former lawyer who served as the 67th United States Secretary of State for President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, as a United States sen ...

websites. In particular, the DFRL noted strong anti-Clinton bias in the 2016 U.S. presidential election coverage, including running several stories previously debunked by fact-checking website

Snopes ''Snopes'' , formerly known as the ''Urban Legends Reference Pages'', is a fact-checking website. It has been described as a "well-regarded reference for sorting out myths and rumors" on the Internet. The site has also been seen as a source f ...

Maffick Media

Maffick Media GmbH was a

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

-based subsidiary of

, which has been accused of being under editorial control of the Russian government. Maffick Media was 51% owned by Ruptly and 49% by Anissa Naouai. It shared an address in Berlin with Ruptly and with Redfish, another RT spin-off brand. It was originally set up as a holding company for ''In The Now''. Maffick ran three other

pages: ''Soapbox'', focusing on current affairs, ''Waste-Ed'', on environmental issues, and Backthen, a history channel. The three pages had over 30 million video views in the first months. From September 2018, it hired several contractors in

. In summer 2018, its video of Anna Dovgalyuk, a Russian social media star, campaigning against

manspreading "Manspreading" or "man-sitting" is a pejorative neologism referring to the practice of men sitting in public transport with legs wide apart, thereby covering more than one seat.Cathy YoungManspreading'? But women hog subway space, too" ''Newsda ...

was watched by millions, but the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

's EUvsDisinfo website alleged that it had been staged as a Kremlin propaganda operation, and it was removed by

. EUvsDisinfo also accused the channel of promoting disinformation about the

Douma chemical attack On 7 April 2018, a chemical warfare attack was carried out by forces of the government of Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian city of Douma. Medics and witnesses reported that it caused the deaths of between 40 and 50 people and injuries to possibl ...

, including the screening of an interview with a child in

Russian military The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (, ), commonly referred to as the Russian Armed Forces, are the military forces of Russia. In terms of active-duty personnel, they are the world's fifth-largest military force, with at least two m ...

custody. Maffick Media's Facebook accounts were suspended in 2019 after investigations by

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

and

T-online t-online.de is a German news portal, owned and published by digital multi-channel media company Ströer. It reaches over 179 million visits per month coming from 29 million unique visitors. The editorial team is located in Berlin. History In ...

revealed ties to RT and Ruptly. Maffick was defended by RT, which said no official requests to explain the websites were filed with Maffick, and blamed CNN for the controversy. It was also defended by RT Editor-in-Chief

Margarita Simonyan Margarita Simonovna Simonyan (russian: link=no, Маргарита Симоновна Симоньян; born 6 April 1980) is a Russian journalist. She is the editor-in-chief of the Russian state-controlled media organisations RT (formerly R ...

and

Kremlin The Kremlin ( rus, Московский Кремль, r=Moskovskiy Kreml', p=ˈmɐˈskofskʲɪj krʲemlʲ, t=Moscow Kremlin) is a fortified complex in the center of Moscow founded by the Rurik dynasty, Rurik dynasty. It is the best known of th ...

spokesman

Dmitry Peskov Dmitry Sergeyevich Peskov ( rus, Дмитрий Сергеевич Песков, p=pʲɪˈskof; born 17 October 1967) is a Russian diplomat and the press secretary for Russian President Vladimir Putin. The pages were restored later that month after they began disclosing their ownership. For example, ''Soapboxs "About" section now read: "'Soapbox' is a political opinion brand of Maffick, which is owned and operated by Anissa Naouai and Ruptly GmbH, a subsidiary of RT". The

vimeo Vimeo, Inc. () is an American video hosting, sharing, and services platform provider headquartered in New York City. Vimeo focuses on the delivery of high-definition video across a range of devices. Vimeo's business model is through software as ...

account for Maffick Video, the account that carried Maffick Media video clips, continues to carry Maffick LLC productions, and as of March 2021, the account continues to refer to itself as "a video startup based in Berlin" Maffick Media continued to be registered in Germany with Naouai as the head until May 7, 2021, when the company was liquidated.

State propaganda accusations

Maffick and Russian state ownership

Maffick LLC was incorporated in Summer 2019 by Maffick Media CEO and minority shareholder Anissa Naouai. Naouai founded Maffick LLC in 2019 after moving to Los Angeles and reincorporating its former channels in the new company. The disclosure about Russian state ownership was removed from Maffick's accounts after the new incorporation.

State media label and Facebook lawsuit

In June 2020,

labeled Maffick LLC's accounts "state-controlled" due to their connections to Maffick Media. The company sued Facebook in the

Northern District of California The United States District Court for the Northern District of California (in case citations, N.D. Cal.) is the federal United States district court whose jurisdiction comprises the following counties of California: Alameda, Contra Costa, De ...

in July 2020 for defamation and monetary damages from lost internet traffic. Maffick's case was dismissed after it was ruled that the company had not proven permanent damage and had largely not disputed Facebook's allegations. In July 2020,

also began labelling Maffick content as “Russian state-affiliated”. Naouai said she would contest this.

Reception

describes Maffick as platforming

sophisticated English-language video and text content for years that experts say is edited and curated in a way designed to exacerbate American political tensions. A lot of it is aimed at younger viewers and the political left, designed to peel them off from the Democratic party, experts say. Some is tailored to gin up outrage on the right.

Franklin Foer Franklin Foer (; born July 20, 1974) is a staff writer at ''The Atlantic'' and former editor of ''The New Republic'', commenting on contemporary issues from a liberal perspective. Personal life Foer was born in 1974 to a Jewish family. He is th ...

in ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'' says that ''In the Now'' "build audiences with ephemera (“Man Licks Store Shelves in Online Post”), then hit unsuspecting readers with arguments about Syria and the CIA."

References

{{Russia Today Digital mass media companies Online content distribution Mass media companies of the United States Mass media companies established in 2019 Russian propaganda organizations Disinformation operations RT (TV network)