The social network
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In a study published Thursday, the American Sunlight Project (ASP) organization describes these accounts as “sleeper agents” since most have been active for several years and have escaped the moderation of the platform, bought in 2022 by billionaire Elon Musk , a major supporter of former president and Republican candidate Donald Trump.
The ASP analyzed more than 1,200 accounts whose profile and activity – more than 100 million posts between their creation and July 2024 – made it possible to associate them with pro-Russian robots.
“Our security team remains vigilant against any attempts to manipulate the platform by malicious actors and networks,” an X spokesperson said in a statement.
“We have a robust policy in place to prevent spam and platform manipulation, and we regularly remove accounts that engage in this type of behavior.”
According to the ASP, these accounts mass distribute propaganda favorable to the Kremlin, content supporting Donald Trump and false information concerning his Democratic rival and the November 5 elections in the United States.
According to some posts, the candidate, for example, admitted that she would be a “puppet” at the mercy of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky if she were elected.
Others are massively sharing misleading posts from Elon Musk who relayed claims that Democrats brought “illegal” migrants to the United States to manipulate the outcome of the presidential election.
Before buying Twitter which became X, Elon Musk promised “to defeat the robots or die trying”. He ultimately reduced the teams dedicated to moderation.
