Maffick

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".[2][7] In The Now changed its Twitter handle from @InTheNowRT to @InTheNow_Tweet, but used the same IP address as RT.[8]

NBC noted that its content, for instance on the Syrian civil war promoted pro-Russian geopolitical positions.[8] Early viral hits included one of Canadian blogger Eva Bartlett defending the legitimacy of the 2014 Syrian presidential election, attacked 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.[7][9][10]

According to the Atlantic Council's Digital Forensic Research Lab (DFRL), RT's parent company, ANO TV-Novosti, had registered In The Now's website.[11] DFRL also reported that its audience was concentrated in the US among 18-24 year olds.[11] The DFRL described the content as mostly non-ideological, but that the 8% of ideological content had a strong pro-Russian slant; the report alleged various inaccuracies in this content, such as the statement that NATO was involved in the Bosnian conflict to “surround Russia” or that Google censored anti-Hillary Clinton websites. In particular, it noted a strong anti-Clinton bias in the 2016 United States presidential election, including running several stories previously debunked by fact-checking website Snopes.[11]

Maffick Media GmbH was a Berlin-based subsidiary of Ruptly, which has been accused of being under editorial control by the Russian government.[12] Maffick Media was 51% owned by Ruptly and 49% by Anissa Naouai.[2] It shared an address in Berlin with Ruptly and with Redfish, another RT spin-off brand.[12][13] It was originally set up as a holding company for In The Now.[2] Maffick ran three other Facebook 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.[2] From September 2018, it hired several contractors in Los Angeles.[2]

In summer 2018, its video of Anna Dovgalyuk, a Russian social media star, campaigning against manspreading was watched by millions, but was accused by the European Union's EUvsDisinfo website of being staged and a Kremlin propoganda operation, and ws removed by YouTube.[5] EUvsDisinfo also alleged that the channel promoted disinformation about the Douma chemical attack, including screening an interview with a child in the custody of the Russian military.[14]

Maffick Media's Facebook accounts were suspended in 2019 after investigations by CNN and T-online 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, as well as by RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan and Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.[3] The pages were restored later that month after disclosing their ownership. For example, Soapbox's "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".[15]

Maffick LLC was incorporated in Summer 2019 by former Maffick Media CEO and minority shareholder Anissa Naouai. Naouai founded Maffick LLC in 2019 after moving to Los Angeles and reincorporated its former channels in the new company.[16] She denies that the two legally distinct companies are related, and states that they merely share the same branding. The disclosure about Russian state ownership was removed from Maffick's accounts after the new incorporation.[16]

In a press release in November 2020, RT has referred to Maffick brand In the Now as an RT social media project.[17]

In June 2020, Facebook labeled Maffick LLC's accounts "state-controlled" due to their connections to RT.[6] The company sued Facebook in the Northern District of California in July 2020 for defamation and monetary damages from lost internet traffic.[18][19][20] Maffick's case was dismissed after in was ruled that the company had not proven permanent damage and had largely not disputed Facebook's allegations.[21]

In July 2020, Twitter also started labelling Maffick content as “state-affiliated”. Naouai said she would contest this.[22]