Red Knots: The Long Trail of Russian Disinformation
In 1918 Wilson operatives fell for fake documents portraying Bolsheviks as German puppets. Since then Moscow has wielded forgeries as a key tool of statecraft.
WHEN THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE recently seized two domain names that acted as hubs for nearly a thousand social media accounts and an AI powered bot farm linked to Russia, it came as a surprise to practically no one.
“Today’s action represents a first in disrupting a Russian-sponsored Generative AI-enhanced social media bot farm,” said FBI Director Chris 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.”
Neither the size nor use of advanced technology raised eyebrows. Russia has always played a “go big or go home” disinformation game.
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