> The US government has already charged 13 Russians, linked to the agency, with attempting to manipulate American voters using social media.
Is that illegal now?
Is that illegal now?
> The purpose of FARA is to insure that the U.S. Government and the people of the United States are informed of the source of information (propaganda) and the identity of persons attempting to influence U.S. public opinion, policy, and laws. In 1938, FARA was Congress' response to the large number of German propaganda agents in the pre-WWII U.S.
https://www.justice.gov/file/1035477/download
Charges 1.Conspiracy to defraud (being unregistered foreign agents acting in politics and stealing SSNs to bring money in), 2. Conspiracy to Commit Wire Fraud and Bank Fraud (laundering money to pay for ads and using stolen SSNs) 3. Identity theft (SSNs)
So the answer is yes it's illegal to be a state actor propagandizing if you aren't registered under the Foreign Agent Restriction Act (which I'll have to read and chuckle over) and based on a quick scan of the primary document the indictments are for the way they tried to work around it.
"Charging" them is a pantomime; Russia won't, and AFAIK legally can't, extradite them anyway.
(I'm assuming they were and are in Russia, not the US.)