The U.S. Department of Justice announced today that it has seized two domains allegedly key to a disinformation campaign by Russia’s RT news network which were used to spread disinformation via X Corp.

The two domains were being used to spread information via 968 X accounts. Despite some reports to the contrary, the X accounts were only “searched” by the Justice Department and not seized. X did, however, voluntarily suspend the bot accounts identified for terms of service violations.

The seized domains were used to create artificial intelligence-enhanced social media bot farms that spread disinformation in the U.S. and abroad. The bot farm is said to have used elements of AI to create fictitious social media profiles pretending to belong to individuals in the U.S., which operators then used to promote messages in support of Russian government objectives.

In conjunction with the domain seizures, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, along with international law enforcement partners in Canada and the Netherlands, released a joint cybersecurity advisory detailing how the bot farm’s creators leveraged AI to promote their misinformation scheme. The advisory has been designed to assist social media platforms and researchers in identifying and preventing the Russian government’s further use of the technology.

The advisory recommends that social media platforms validate that accounts are created and operated by real individuals, similar to Know Your Customer guidelines. Additionally, they are advised to review and upgrade their authentication and verification processes based on the information provided in the advisory.

Other recommended protocols include identifying and reviewing users with suspicious user agent strings and making user accounts secure by default by employing multifactor authentication and ensuring privacy and acceptable behavior settings are in place.

“Today’s action demonstrates that the Justice Department and our partners will not tolerate Russian government actors and their agents deploying AI to sow disinformation and fuel division among Americans,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement. “As malign actors accelerate their criminal misuse of AI, the Justice Department will respond and we will prioritize disruptive actions with our international partners and the private sector.”

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