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The U.S. Department of Justice has seized 32 internet domains connected to a Russian disinformation campaign that used artificial intelligence and fake influencers to target U.S. citizens ahead of the 2024 election, the agency said on Wednesday.
According to the agency, Russian entities used cybersquatting and AI-generated content to spread disinformation targeted at Americans—an ongoing influence campaign designated “Doppelganger.”
“Today’s announcement exposes the scope of the Russian government’s influence operations and their reliance on cutting-edge AI to sow disinformation,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement. “Companies operating at the direction of the Russian government created websites to trick Americans into unwittingly consuming Russian propaganda.”
Cybersquatting refers to malicious websites or domains that mimic legitimate ones. According to the DOJ, Doppelganger also used fake social media profiles and AI-generated ads.
Justice Department Disrupts Covert Russian Government-Sponsored Foreign Malign Influence Operation Targeting Audiences in the United States and Elsewhere
🔗: pic.twitter.com/3d98jA0UiM
— U.S. Department of Justice (@TheJusticeDept) September 4, 2024
“Among the methods Doppelganger used to drive viewership to the cybersquatted and unique media domains was the deployment of ‘influencers’ worldwide, paid social media advertisements (in some cases created using artificial intelligence tools), and the creation of social media profiles posing as U.S. (or other non-Russian) citizens to post comments on social media platforms with links to the cybersquatted domains,” the agency said.
The Justice Department cited an affidavit that detailed how the foreign agents set up a fake site designed to look like The Washington Post, but containing articles critical of U.S. policies.
“Today’s announcement reveals Russia is willing to impersonate our free and open press in its egregious schemes,” an official added.
Along with the DOJ’s announcement of the website seizures, the U.S. Department of Treasury revealed that two companies and ten individuals—including executives from the Russian state-funded media outlet RT (Russia Today) and members of the pro-Kremlin hacktivist group RaHDit—were involved in the campaign.
The Treasury Department said these entities used various tools, including generative AI, and AI-generated deepfakes, in an attempt to fool voters.
Names designated by the department included RT deputy editors-in-chief Elizaveta Yuryevna Brodskaia and Anton Sergeyvich Anisimov, as well as RT English-language broadcasting deputy director Andrey Vladimirovich Kiyashko, and Elena Mikhaylovna Afanasyeva, an employee with RT’s digital media department.
RaHDit members called out were Aleksey Alekseyevich Garashchenko, Anastasia Igorevna Yermoshkina, and Aleksandr Vitalyevich Nezhentsev.
According to the Treasury Department Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), all property and interests of designated individuals in the U.S. or controlled by U.S. persons are blocked and must be reported to the agency, and U.S. persons are prohibited from transactions with these individuals without authorization, or risk facing sanctions as well.
“Today’s action underscores the U.S. government’s ongoing efforts to hold state-sponsored actors accountable for activities that aim to deteriorate public trust in our institutions,” Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen said in a statement. “Treasury will not waver in our commitment to safeguarding our democratic principles and the integrity of our election systems.”
In July, the Department of Justice flagged nearly 1,000 Twitter accounts linked to a Russian bot farm that used generative AI to create fake social media profiles, many claiming to be Americans, that were then used to post pro-Russian messages on Twitter.
