Federal prosecutors have dismantled hundreds of artificial intelligence-generated fake social media accounts used by Russian operatives to create a “bot farm” that spread lies and pro-Vladimir Putin disinformation in the United States and abroad, the Department of Justice announced Tuesday. This operation is part of a broader strategy to combat the surge of Russian AI bot farms and their role in disseminating Russian fake news and Ukraine fake news.
Many of these bots, complete with photos of smiling individuals, purported to be Americans with names like “Sue Williamson” and “Ricardo Abbott.” They used social media platforms such as X, formerly Twitter, to praise Putin’s generosity and virtues. Disinformation experts and U.S. officials praised the crackdown as the first of its kind against state-sponsored AI-powered propaganda. It comes at a crucial time for Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion and ahead of the U.S. presidential election in November.
“Today’s actions represent a first,” said FBI Director Christopher Wray. “Russia intended to use this bot farm to disseminate AI-generated foreign disinformation, scaling their work with the assistance of AI to undermine our partners in Ukraine and influence geopolitical narratives favorable to the Russian government.”
According to U.S. court documents, Russia’s Federal Security Service orchestrated the operation from 2022 through 2024. They created nearly 1,000 X accounts and two websites. U.S. Cyber Command, along with partners from the Netherlands and Canada, joined the FBI in dismantling the Russian operation. The Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Acting on warrants issued by a federal judge, the FBI seized the X accounts and websites after suspicions of international money laundering and conspiracy arose, according to affidavits filed in the District of Arizona, where the websites were registered. X suspended the 968 accounts for violating terms of service. The company could not be reached for comment.
The bots posted misleading information and outright lies. One user, “Sue Williamson,” posted videos undermining the Ukrainian military and showing Putin justifying the invasion. The American personas were created using AI-powered software that only works on X, although analysts expect it to be modified for other social media platforms, according to a cybersecurity advisory from the FBI and its partners.
The accounts were registered to email domains paid for in Bitcoin. Investigators traced the accounts back to Moscow through a series of email addresses provided in case the Russian agents forgot the passwords. Putin was trending among the AI-generated Americans. Ricardo Abbott, a fictitious Minneapolis resident, shared videos of Putin arguing that Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine were part of Russia.
Dietram Scheufele, a professor of science communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies misinformation, said the number of bots taken offline by the FBI operation is small compared to the myriad fake accounts on social media. However, he felt encouraged that the feds were going after the roots of AI-generated misinformation instead of flagging doctored videos.
“The unmanageable and unwieldy problem is foreign actors,” he said. “Now we’re seeing the first pushback.”
