US officials uncover alleged Russian 'bot farm'2024-07-10 17:15 by Daniela
The Department of Justice announced on Tuesday that it seized two domain names and more than 900 social media accounts it claims were part of an "AI-enhanced" Russian bot farm. Many of the accounts were designed to look like they belonged to Americans and posted content about the Russia-Ukraine war, including videos in which Russian President Vladimir Putin justified Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Justice Department claims that an employee of RT - Russia's state media outlet - was behind the bot farm. RT's leadership signed off on a plan to use the bot farm to "distribute information on a wide-scale basis," amplifying the publication's reach on social media," an FBI agent alleged in an affidavit. To set up the bot farm, the employee bought two domain names from Namecheap, an Arizona-based company, that were then used to create two email servers, the affidavit claims. The servers were then used to create 968 email addresses, which were in turn used to set up social media accounts, according to the affidavit and the DOJ. No criminal charges have been made public in the case, but the justice department said that its investigation is ongoing. The accounts now appear to have been deleted by X, and screenshots shared by FBI investigators indicated that they had very few followers. The takedown marks a major U.S. push to clamp down on Russian information operations that aim to sow doubt about domestic and international politics on social media. An investigation into the operation is still ongoing, DOJ said, though it underscores yet another attempt made by the Kremlin's clan of information operations specialists that intelligence officials have persistently warned of as elections take place around the world in 2024. Read more -here-
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