- more. Producer-1 privately messaged Founder-1, writing: "I don't know if you saw it, but they want me to post some footage from an attack in Moscow today. There's a watermark in the middle of the page that's blurred, which looks bad, and it's also pretty graphic. You can see people getting shot, albeit from far away." Founder-1 did not push back on the content of the clip, but replied in the Producer Discord Channel: "I'm not sure it's a good idea to blur out someone's watermark." AFANASYEVA (as "Helena Shudra") then assured the group that "[i]t's fine no worries. It falls under fair use." Producer-1 and Producer-2 found a video clip of the attack without a watermark and posted the clip to X, satisfying AFANASYEVA's request.
- The next day, on or about March 23, 2024, AFANASYEVA (as "Helena Shudra") privately messaged Founder-1 on Discord asking that "one of our creators . . . record something about [the] Moscow terror attack." Despite public reporting that the foreign terrorist organization ISIS had claimed responsibility for the attack, AFANASYEVA requested that U.S. Company-1 blame Ukraine and the United States, writing: "I think we can focus on the Ukraine/U.S. angle. . . . [T]he mainstream media spread fake news that ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack yet ISIS itself never made such statements. All terrorists are now detained while they were heading to the border with Ukraine which makes it even more suspicious why they would want to go to Ukraine to hide." Founder-1 responded that Founder-1 would ask Commentator-3, and, the next day, confirmed that Commentator-3 said "he's happy to cover it."
38. By in or about June 2024, Founder-1 authorized AFANASYEVA and KALASHNIKOV to post content directly on U.S. Company-1's platform, bypassing U.S. Company-1 employees altogether. Specifically, on or about June 12, 2024, in a Discord message, Founder-1 informed Producer-1 that "going forward," "Helena's team," ie., AFANASYEVA and KALASHNIKOV, would "be posting their own vids directly" to U.S. Company-1's social media
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