The war on Telegram: Russia spends billions on propaganda, and 67% of comments in the Ukrainian segment are generated by AI
12 December 07:47
The Russian Federation spends billions of dollars annually on propaganda and disinformation, largely focusing on the use of artificial intelligence for manipulation.
Andriy Kovalenko, head of the National Security and Defense Council’s Center for Countering Disinformation, said that the intensity of AI use has led to the fact that more than 67% of comments in the Ukrainian segment of Telegram publics are the work of Russian bot farms
He said this during a telethon, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
The main directions of the Russian Information Warfare
According to Andriy Kovalenko, Russia is actively developing internal AI-based tools that are not freely available, probably with the support of China. These tools are used for two key purposes:
- Video generation (Deepfakes):
- To increase the realism of the generated video content.
- Such videos are mainly targeted at the Ukrainian army, simulating alleged discontent or certain critical situations among the military.
- The AntAC regularly debunks such AI products.
- Scaling Bot Farms (ML bot farms):
- The use of AI significantly reduces the cost and scales of bot farms. Unfortunately, Kovalenko predicts that the situation will only get worse in the future.
- The goal of ML bot farms: To create the illusion of mass opinion and manipulate public sentiment through a network of thousands of fake accounts.
Critical situation in Telegram
The head of the AntAC provided shocking data on the activity of bot farms in Telegram, one of the most popular sources of information in Ukraine:
- More than 67% of comments under million-plus publics in Ukrainian Telegram are comments generated by Russian bot farms.
- This figure has doubled in just one year compared to 2024, which confirms the growing intensity of AI use.
Andrii Kovalenko noted that the situation on TikTok has improved somewhat, as the platform itself has implemented AI mechanisms to filter content by keywords. However, bot farms are still active in Threads and under publics.
