The US justice department said it has disrupted a Russian operation that used fake social media accounts enhanced by artificial intelligence to covertly spread pro-Kremlin messages around the world.

The news comes four months before the US presidential election, which security experts widely believe will be the target of both hacking and covert social media influence attempts by foreign adversaries. Senior US officials have said publicly they are monitoring for schemes intended to disrupt the vote.

The justice department secured court approval to seize two domain names and search nearly a thousand social media accounts allegedly associated with the effort.

“With these actions, the justice department has disrupted a Russian government-backed, AI-enabled propaganda campaign to use a bot farm to spread disinformation in the US and abroad,” attorney-general Merrick Garland said in a statement.

Tuesday’s action marked the first time the US publicly accused a foreign government of using generative AI in a foreign influence operation, according to justice department and FBI officials. US officials have warned that adversaries may use the growing power of AI systems to scale up efforts to spread misinformation.

The alleged operation, according to prosecutors, was organised through a private intelligence organisation based in Russia staffed by Russian intelligence officers and a senior employee of the Moscow-based, government-funded news outlet Russia Today, or RT. The effort was approved and funded by the Kremlin in early 2023, according to the justice department.

Fake accounts

Spokespeople for the Russian embassy in Washington and RT did not respond to requests for comment.

This private organisation had designed a custom, AI-powered platform to create, control and manage hundreds of fake social accounts, which were made to look like real Americans, according to court documents.

The accounts on social media platform X have since been banned. They commonly posted pro-Kremlin talking points, including videos of Russian President Vladimir Putin, and criticised the Ukrainian government.

The US worked with Dutch authorities on the investigation. The campaign was run from a server in the Netherlands, according to investigators. — Andrew Goudsward and Christopher Bing, with Stephanie van den Berg, (c) 2024 Reuters