Foreign influence from malign actors spreading disinformation has become increasingly sophisticated and difficult to track
Reporters at the spin room during the presidential debate between vice-president Kamala Harris and former president Donald Trump. Iran , Russia and China are engaging in similar efforts to influence American politics, and all three are scattering their efforts across dozens of platforms. Photograph: Kenny Holston/New York Times, spreading divisive and inflammatory content online to stoke outrage, its posts were brash and riddled with spelling errors and strange syntax.
Iran in particular has spent its resources setting up covert disinformation efforts to draw in niche groups. A website titled Not Our War, which aimed to draw in US military veterans, interspersed articles about the lack of support for active-duty soldiers with virulently anti-American views and conspiracy theories.
OpenAI, whose ChatGPT tool popularised the technology, reported this month that it had disrupted more than 20 foreign operations that had used the company’s products between June and September. They included efforts by Russia, China, Iran and other countries to create and fill websites and to spread propaganda or disinformation on social media – and even to analyse and reply to specific posts.
Last month, Russia was caught obscuring its attempts to influence Americans by secretly backing a group of conservative American commentators employed through Tenet Media, a digital platform created in Tennessee in 2023. The new tactics have made it harder for government agencies and tech companies to find and remove the influence campaigns – all while emboldening other hostile states, said Graham Brookie, the senior director at the Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab.
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