Phoenix company used by Russians to operate social media ‘bot farm,’ feds say
There’s no indication the Arizona-based company knew about the Russian operation
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — The U.S. Department of Justice reported it had disrupted a Russian misinformation campaign that used fake social media accounts to spread misinformation about the war in Ukraine.
In testimony to Congress, the FBI director alluded to the fact that the campaign also included misinformation about the coming U.S. election. A Phoenix-based web hosting company may have unwittingly contributed to the scheme.
“The Justice Department today announced the seizure of two domain names and the search of 968 social media accounts used by Russian actors to create an AI-enhanced social media bot farm that spread disinformation in the United States and abroad,” read a statement released by the Justice Department.
According to an affidavit filed in federal court in Phoenix, Russian agents, working through a fake address in Lithuania, acquired the domain names, “MLRTR.COM” and “OTANMAIL.COM” from Namecheap, Inc, a web hosting company based in Phoenix.
Namecheap officials did not respond to a request for comment, but nothing in the documents released by the DOJ indicates that the company or its officers knew they were providing domains to Russian agents.
The websites are now down and replaced by a panel, which states the web domains have been seized by the FBI.
“We announced the significant disruption of a generative AI-enhanced social media – bot farm essentially of the Russians that was designed to be an influence operation and some of the fake, fictitious profiles of those bots purported to be U.S. persons so they’re still at it. We’ve seen that in election cycle after election cycle,” said FBI director Christopher Wray in front of a Congressional panel last week.
(Editor’s Note: The FBI director addresses the bot farm at time code 2:24:02)
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