FBI shuts down Putin-praising bots

[ClearSky24]

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/feds-shut-down-russian-bot-farm-that-spread-ai-created-lies-for-putin/ar-BB1pI4no?ocid=BingNewsSerp

Federal prosecutors ripped down hundreds of AI-generated phony 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.

Many of the electronically-created bots, complete with pictures of smiling clean-cut people, purported to be Americans with names such as "Sue Williamson" and "Ricardo Abbott" who were supposedly taking to social media sites such as X to extoll on Putin's generosity and virtues.

“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.”

Russia’s Federal Security Service - the successors of the KGB - orchestrated the operation from 2022 through 2024, U.S. court documents say. They created nearly 1,000 X accounts and two websites, according to federal court filings.

U.S. Cyber Command and partners from the Netherlands and Canada joined the FBI in taking down the Russian operation.

The Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The FBI, acting on warrants issued by a federal judge, seized the X accounts and the websites after suspicions were raised about international money laundering and conspiracy, 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.

[John1956PA]

1. A fully-funded FBI and an impartial DOJ are necessary to fight this threat. n/t

[riversedge]

2. The bots just keep reproducting themselves!!

[John1956PA]

3. The images of the account holders are AI generated.

I remember reading, over ten years ago, about the spate of phony social media accounts generated by troll farms from Russia or the right wing. Each photo would be a close up of about half of a person's face. I am thinking that, back then, the troll farms used stock photos of models and showed only portions of their faces so that the originals of the photos could not be searched via facial recognition.

[moniss]

8. It follows over into how phony

product/service "reviews" are done etc. The phony "likes", " shares" and "recs" etc. so often generated by bots and shared back and forth between phony accounts but then cited by statistical companies as "proof" of a particular view or of popularity. I remember back when the internet first started and many of us complained and warned about all of the phony crap, fraud and lies that were going on. The general attitude of the lawmakers and law enforcement was "Oh that's just the internet and probably just some kids or something." We warned about software vulnerabilities and the danger to business/banking etc. by becoming overly dependent on the idea of "firewalls" and "security professionals".

On and on and rather than taking it slow everything has been rushed and pushed as fast as possible. Then the ones who wouldn't listen wring their hands and cry when it all gets f'd up. So now we have the proliferation of fake videos, fake accounts, fake stories etc. by the many thousands positioning to have major detrimental impacts on society by fraudulently manipulating elections and voters.

But I remember how at each stage as we raised warnings we ended up brushed aside as paranoid, unaware, trying to stop progress etc.

[moniss]

4. Too bad there's not

also a way to send a massive electrical overload into the places this stuff originates.

[Cha]

5. TY FBI!

[BigmanPigman]

6. I was just speaking with a friend about this subject

a few days ago. I asked her where were all the bots from Russia in the recent European elections. I remember there was a huge influence when Brexit was voted in.
Weren't there a ton of bots in the 2016 US Elections? What was Cambridge Analytica? Was that a bot farm?

[BoRaGard]

7. Republicans complain that the US is defending itself

Repubes were counting on Americans to be "suckers and losers."

[not fooled]

9. Every dumbass maggot I know

gets their "news" off social media but has never heard of troll farms. \

[Emrys]

10. The crop on Twitter were utterly blatant and unconvincing

The ones I saw would tag onto the end of discussions about Ukraine.

The pattern was a zero-follower/following blue-tick account set up fairly recently with a mundane-sounding American name quote-tweeting another blue-tick account set up fairly recently with a mundane-sounding American name which might have a few followers and usually posted a video with obviously bogus inflammatory claims about Zelensky, his wife or events in the war.

I haven't seen any since the FBI acted, but then I've checked out Ukraine stories a little less than normal because of other goings-on. I'd imagine their numbers will increase again over time as other networks take up the slack.