Nearly a thousand X accounts controlled by a large bot farm pushing Russian propaganda and domains used to register the bots were taken down in a joint international law enforcement operation led by the US Department of Justice.
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Organized and managed by a deputy editor-in-chief at the Russian state-run news organization Russia Today (RT) and a Russian FSB officer, the bot farm spread disinformation and Russian propaganda, targeting Twitter around the world since 2022 using an AI-enabled software called Meliorator.
RT affiliates used Meliorator to create authentic-looking social media accounts posing as real people from multiple countries worldwide to amplify false narratives and Russian malign foreign influence on Twitter.
The social media bot farm allowed RT to widely disseminate information about Russian propaganda and expand its distribution of information beyond traditional television broadcasts.
“As early as 2022, RT had access to Meliorator, an artificial intelligence-enabled bot farm creation and management software to spread disinformation to and about certain countries, including the United States, Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Ukraine, and Israel,” the FBI said.
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«Meliorator was designed to be used on social media networks to create “authentic” faces that appear en masse, allowing the spread of disinformation, which could help Russia exacerbate discord and try to change public opinion.».
While as of June 2024, Meliorator only worked on X (formerly known as Twitter), analysis suggests that its operators would likely expand its functionality to support other social media networks.
The bot farm submitted new Twitter bots, using private email servers in the mlrtr[.]com and otanmail[.]com domains , which were seized as part of the DOJ-led operation.
X also removed 968 social media profiles [affidavit] identified as part of RT’s bot farm, often claiming to belong to individuals in the United States.
The FBI and the Cyber National Mission Force (CNMF) published a joint advisory with more technical details about the Meliorator software powering the bot farm in collaboration with the Canadian Center for Cyber Security (CCCS), the Dutch General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD), the Dutch Military Intelligence and Security Service (MIVD) , and the Dutch Police.
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Bot farms like the one pushing Russian propaganda have emerged as a significant concern in the digital age, particularly in the social media and cybersecurity sectors .These bot farms consist of networks of automated accounts, or bots, programmed to perform specific tasks, such as spreading disinformation, creating false engagement, or even launching cyberattacks. Bot farms operated by cybercriminals or entities seeking to manipulate public opinion are complex in their design and execution. They can appear indistinguishable from genuine user activity, making it difficult to detect and combat their influence.
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Source: bleepingcomputer
