dChan
Anonymous ID: 1f76e6 July 9, 2024, 6:16 p.m. No.21170612   🗄️.is đź”—kun   >>0803 >>1187 >>1216 >>1255 >>1256

https://x.com/FBI/status/1810698085514829942

 

dread

 

According to court documents, a bot farm is an enhanced software package which allows for the creation of false personas on social media platforms. Bot farms are enhanced by integrating components which contain artificial intelligence, such as image production or text generation.

 

As described in the affidavits filed in support of the warrants, development of the social media bot farm was organized by an individual identified in Russia (Individual A). In early 2022, Individual A worked as the deputy editor-in-chief at RT, a state-run Russian news organization based in Moscow. Since at least 2022, RT leadership sought the development of alternative means for distributing information beyond RT’s standard television news broadcasts. In response, Individual A led the development of software that was able to create and to operate a social media bot farm. As planned, the social media bot farm would create fictitious online personas for social media accounts, through which RT, or any operator of the bot farm, could distribute information on a wide-scale basis. The development was executed by Individual B and others, who hid their identities and location (Russia) while beginning to purchase infrastructure for the social media bot farm in April 2022.

 

In early 2023, with the approval and financial support of the Presidential Administration of Russia (aka the Kremlin), a Russian FSB officer (FSB Officer 1) created and led a private intelligence organization (P.I.O.), as explained in the affidavits. The P.I.O.’s membership was comprised of, among others, employees at RT, including Individual A. The true purpose of the P.I.O. was to advance the mission of the FSB and the Russian government, including by spreading disinformation through the social media accounts created by the bot farm.

 

According to the affidavits, FSB Officer 1, Individual A, and other members of the PIO had access to the social media bot farm. The following are examples of Russian-government narratives that the bot farm posted on X in October and November 2023:

 

A purported U.S. constituent replied to a candidate for federal office’s social media posts regarding the conflict in Ukraine with a video of President Putin justifying Russia’s actions in Ukraine;