Pro-Russian ‘sleeper agent’ bots on X push US election misinformation: Study

Hundreds of pro-Russian bot accounts on X are spreading misinformation about the US election and amplifying false narratives targeting Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, according to a report released bythe American Sunlight Project (ASP).
The Washington-based research group described these accounts as “sleeper agents” for evading detecting for years.
The ASP report analysed nearly 1,200 accounts that have generated over 100 million posts as of July.These accounts promoted pro-Kremlin propaganda, supported Republican nominee Donald Trump, and spread false claims about Harris’s campaign. Some of the accounts have remained undetected for up to 15 years, with bot-like behavior such as retweeting content within seconds of posting, the group said.
Nina Jankowicz, co-founder and CEO of ASP, expressed surprise at the longevity of these bot accounts. “We were shocked to learn that some of the accounts in the sleeper agent network have been active for more than a decade,” Jankowicz told AFP.
The report highlighted specific examples of misinformation, including one account claiming Harris admitted she would be a “puppet” of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy if elected. Other falsehoods included allegations that the White House was pushing for regime change in Lebanon.
The bots, some using fake personas with stock images, also shared content on unrelated topics like sports and cryptocurrency to blend into broader conversations on the platform, the report found. The entity behind these pro-Russian accounts remains unidentified.
ASP also mentioned the challenge of tracking the bots due to data restrictions imposed by X after Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of the platform in 2022. Researchers now face steep fees for access to X’s API, limiting their ability to fully assess the bots’ reach.
Bots have been a key tool in Russia’s misinformation campaigns, especially following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Despite Musk’s promise to eliminate spam bots, bot activity remains rampant on X, according to researchers, with moderation and safety teams scaled back.
“Despite Musk’s pledge to rid his platform of bots, they persist on X, even from networks likely tied to state actors,” Jankowicz said, calling for stricter enforcement of X’s platform manipulation and spam policies.