Network of TikTok accounts uses AI to spread political misinformation, report says

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TikTok's pushy content has been powered by AI over the past year, including content spreading political falsehoods ahead of the election, according to new data from misinformation monitoring group NewsGuard.

In a new report detailing the use of AI tools by bad actors on TikTok, the organization found at least 41 TikTok accounts posting AI-enhanced false content in both English and French. Between March 2023 and June 2024, these accounts posted 9,784 videos with a combined total of more than 380 million views, averaging one to four AI-narrated videos per day. Many of the videos use identical scripts, suggesting a coordinated effort. Some of the accounts are also eligible to monetize their videos under TikTok's Creator Fund.

Newsguard explained that much of the content was essays and trivia-style videos sharing false narratives about US and European politics and the Russia-Ukraine war, including the false claim that NATO had sent combat troops to Ukraine and the false claim that the US was behind the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack in Moscow in March.

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The research was conducted in collaboration with the AI ​​detection tool TrueMedia.org.

Last year, NewsGuard documented the rise of a small network of TikTok accounts using AI-powered text-to-speech tools to spread conspiracy theories about celebrities. The short videos, which AI used to instantly generate narration and additional audio for videos sharing mass amounts of misinformation, garnered a combined 336 million views and 14.5 million likes in a three-month period.

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The latest report shows a similarly significant increase in AI-powered content on apps, but this time politically motivated. The trend suggests that apps are increasingly incentivizing and growing AI content farms. The organization defines AI content farms as “organizations that generate large amounts of low-quality content, typically to collect views or advertising revenue.”

The spread of AI-enabled misinformation and disinformation is not something TikTok can ignore, and the platform has pledged to use generative AI to more effectively label and watermark content. But political misinformation, bolstered by the efficiency of its AI capabilities, continues to proliferate.

Meanwhile, on July 9, the Department of Justice announced that it had identified and removed a Russian AI-powered bot farm that operated at least 1,000 pro-Kremlin accounts on X (formerly Twitter) and was backed by Russia's successor to the KGB. A few months earlier, OpenAI announced it had removed foreign nation-state accounts it identified as attempting to use its AI technology to support potential cyberattacks.

The United States itself has also used AI technology and bot farms to spread its own counter-narratives and outright disinformation campaigns, including in 2020 efforts to curb foreign influence spreading misinformation about COVID-19.

As the election approaches (and voter turnout and candidate credibility are called into question), watchdog and advocacy groups continue to monitor both targeted disinformation and AI-amplified misinformation spread on social media platforms.

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