United States of America: Issued ruling in US Department of Justice investigation into covert Russian Government operated social media bot farm

On 27 June 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced the seizure of two domain names and the search of 968 social media accounts used by Russian actors to create an AI-enhanced social media bot farm that spread disinformation in the United States and abroad. The ruling targets cybersecurity and social media sectors, particularly those involved in domain name registration, email server provision, and social media platform X. The ruling imposes several obligations, including the seizure of the domain names “mlrtr.com” and “otanmail.com” used for creating fictitious social media accounts and the identification of disinformation-spreading social media accounts. The DOJ's ongoing investigation seeks further disruption of such activities.