US Justice Department says it disrupted Russian social media influence operation

The US Justice Department said on Tuesday that it disrupted a Russian operation that used fake social media accounts enhanced by artificial intelligence to covertly spread pro-Kremlin messages in the United States and abroad.

The news comes four months before the US presidential election, which security experts widely believe will be the target of both hacking and covert social media influence attempts by foreign adversaries. Senior US officials have said publicly they are monitoring for schemes intended to disrupt the vote.

The alleged operation, according to prosecutors, was run by a private intelligence organisation based in Russia staffed by Russian intelligence officers and a senior employee of the Moscow-based, government-funded news outlet Russia Today, or RT.