Feds disrupt ‘bot farm’ spreading lies about Putin on social media

The Justice Department announced Tuesday that federal prosecutors destroyed a large number of AI-generated fake social media accounts created by Russian operatives to create “bot farms” that spread lies and pro-Vladimir Putin disinformation in the U.S. and other countries. Used to spread.

Most of the electronically created bots, which include smiling figures of clean society, are believed to be US citizens with names like “Sue Williamson” and “Ricardo Abbott”, who are reportedly using social media like X to praise Were visiting websites. On Putin’s generosity and virtues.

Disinformation campaigners and US officials described the action as the first of its kind against state-sponsored AI-powered propaganda. It comes at a critical point in Ukraine’s defense against Russian aggression and ahead of the US presidential election in November.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said, “Today’s action represents a first.” “Russia intended to use this bot farm to spread AI-generated foreign disinformation, amplify its work with the aid of AI to undermine our partners in Ukraine, and influence geopolitical narratives favorable to the Russian government. “

According to US court documents, Russia’s Federal Security Agency – the successor to the KGB – planned the operation from 2022 to 2024. According to federal court filings, he created approximately 1,000 X accounts and two Internet sites.

U.S. Cyber ​​Command and partners from the Netherlands and Canada joined the FBI in disrupting the Russian operation.

The Russian Embassy in Washington, DC did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Acting on a warrant issued through a federal subpoena, the FBI seized the X accounts and Internet sites after raising suspicions about global money laundering and conspiracy, according to affidavits filed in the District of Arizona. Internet sites have been registered.

X suspended 968 accounts for violating the carrier’s phrases. Corporate can no longer be reached for comment.

Russian propaganda realistic about life

The bots posted everything from misleading knowledge to outright lies.

A user named Sue Williamson posted videos undermining the Ukrainian military by declaring the number of foreign adversaries in its ranks was much lower than actually estimated, according to court documents. The user also posted videos of Putin justifying the invasion.

The US personas have been created using an AI-powered tool that only works on X, although analysts expect it to be adapted to work on other social media platforms, according to a cybersecurity advisory. The FBI and its allies.

This tool uses a small selection of inputs to create accounts that can create and share content according to specified personal tastes.

The filing said the accounts were registered for email domain names paid for in Bitcoin. Investigators traced the accounts to Moscow through the layout of email addresses provided in case Russian brokers forgot the passwords of the bot accounts.

Putin has been training many AI generated American citizens.

The filing said Ricardo Abbott, a fictional resident of Minneapolis, shared videos of the Russian president arguing that Lithuania, Poland and Ukraine were part of Russia.

Some other bots shared videos justifying the invasion of Putin’s federal administrative center candidate, the affidavit said.

According to court filings, the videos are propaganda similar to those found on Russia’s state-run RT information network; And the bot farm scheme was conceived by a former RT writer who was looking for ways to reach audiences outside RT’s broadcast audience.

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Kushal described the operation as ‘heartening’

Dieter Scheufele is a science oral exchange teacher at the College of Wisconsin–Madison who researches misinformation.

He said the number of bots taken offline through the FBI operation is small compared to the myriad of fake accounts on social media. However, he was inspired by the fact that the feds are getting to the roots of AI-generated misinformation rather than just flagging doctored movies.

“I feel happy,” the German local said. “We’ve seen a lot of activities that are bandaging the symptoms but haven’t really addressed the root cause – removing the tumor.”

He said the AI-generated accounts reach consumers who are not reading mainstream fact-checked stories. To be able to deal with the problem, the government needed to shut down operations completely.

AI bot plans are fair for construction and security, Scheufele said, so American citizens should expect to see more Putin-loving outspoken heartlanders.

However Scheufele was inspired by what the FBI was then reporting as state-sponsored AI-generated disinformation, which he called the most dangerous type of propaganda for its scale and purpose of sowing discord in American communities.

“The unchecked and burdensome problem are foreign actors,” he said. “Now we are seeing the first pushback.”