WASHINGTON — A Kremlin-backed Russian internet propaganda campaign that used artificial intelligence to spread disinformation in the United States has been disrupted, the Justice Department said Tuesday, with nearly 1,000 fake social media accounts seized.
Officials described the operation as part of an ongoing effort to sow division in the U.S. by creating fictitious social media profiles that appeared to belong to legitimate users but were in fact intended to advance Russian government goals, including spreading disinformation about the war with Ukraine.
U.S. officials said the plan was orchestrated in 2022 by a chief editor at RT, a Russian state-funded media organization that registered with the Ministry of Justice as a foreign agent. It received the backing and financial approval of the Kremlin, with an officer from Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) heading a private intelligence agency that spread disinformation via social media.
There was no immediate response to an email to RT on Tuesday.
The disruption of the so-called social media bot farm comes as U.S. officials raise alarms about the possibility that AI technology could influence U.S. elections and amid ongoing concerns that foreign influence campaigns by adversaries could sway the opinions of unsuspecting voters, such as a elaborate Russian plot to disrupt 2016 presidential election through a massive but covert social media trolling campaign, partly aimed at helping Republican Donald Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton.
“Today’s actions represent a first in disrupting a Russian-sponsored Generative AI-enhanced social media bot farm,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement. “Russia intended to use this bot farm to spread AI-generated foreign disinformation, scaling their work with the help of AI to undermine our partners in Ukraine and influence geopolitical narratives favorable to the Russian government.”
According to the Justice Department, the fake messages included a video posted by an alleged Minneapolis, Minnesota, resident in which Russian President Vladimir Putin said that parts of Ukraine, Poland and Lithuania were “gifts” to those countries from liberating Russian forces during World War II.
As part of the disruption, the Justice Department seized two domain names and 968 accounts on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
The FBI and the Cyber National Mission Force also worked with the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security and Law Enforcement in the Netherlands on a joint cybersecurity advice about the social media bot farm.
