U.S. law enforcers have seized two domain names and issued search warrants on 968 accounts allegedly created on the social media platform X by Russian actors as an artificial intelligence-powered bot farm for a global disinformation campaign.
According to a statement from the Department of Justice on the cases’ affidavits opened on Tuesday, the bot farm faked X profiles, many of which were individuals purportedly from the United States, to spread messages supporting the Kremlin’s purposes. X has voluntarily suspended the other social accounts named in the affidavits for terms of service violations, the department said.
The FBI and the Cyber National Mission have issued a joint warning with their counterparts in Canada and the Netherlands and the private sector on the Russian actors’ approaches as a follow-up action against the Russian bot farm. They identified associates of RT, a Russian state-sponsored media outfit, as the bot farm’s creator that use the covert Meliorator software in malicious activities.
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco noted that the Justice Department prioritizes countermeasures against AI misuse in collaboration with the private sector and international partners. “We will not hesitate to shut down bot farms, seize illegally obtained internet domains and take the fight to our adversaries,” she said.