Disinformation researchers say bot-like activity plagues X

Washington (AFP) - X was “alert” to any platform manipulation attempts, the Elon Musk-owned site told AFP Friday, following a report that hundreds of apparent pro-Russian bot accounts were amplifying US election misinformation.

In a study shared exclusively with AFP earlier this week, the Washington-based American Sunlight Project (ASP) said it found nearly 1,200 accounts on X that pushed pro-Kremlin propaganda, content favoring Republican nominee Donald Trump, and misinformation about Democratic contender Kamala Harris.

ASP called them “sleeper agents” as some of the accounts had escaped detection and moderation on the site –- previously known as Twitter – for as long as 15 years and retweeted content within seconds of its posting, indicating bot activity.

“Our safety team remains alert to any attempt to manipulate the platform by bad actors and networks,” an X spokesman said in a statement.

“We have a robust policy in place to prevent platform spam and manipulation, and we routinely take down accounts engaged in this type of behavior.”

Without directly addressing ASP’s findings, the spokesman added that in the first half of 2024, the platform had suspended more than 460 million accounts under its manipulation and spam policy.

Nina Jankowicz, ASP’s co-founder and chief executive who is the former Department of Homeland Security disinformation chief, has called on X to take down the pro-Russian network that was pushing out “abusive and false content” targeting Harris.

Musk – who has endorsed Trump ahead of the November 5 presidential election –- has also courted criticism for amplifying political falsehoods through his influential personal account on X, which has over 200 million followers.

Among the accounts analyzed by ASP was one created in 2020 that promoted the falsehood that Harris had admitted she will be a “puppet” of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky if elected president.

It also touted the unfounded claim that the White House was pushing for regime change in Lebanon, taking advantage of Israel’s recent attacks on the militant group Hezbollah.

Ahead of his purchase of the platform in 2022 for $44 billion, Musk pledged to “defeat the spam bots or die trying.”

But apparent bot activity remains entrenched on the platform, according to several disinformation researchers, including a report last year from Australia’s Queensland University of Technology that analyzed about one million posts.