Operation "Doppelganger": Russian influence activity targeting Ukraine

This case study was originally published in OpenAI’s May 2024⁠(opens in a new window) report.

Actor

We banned four clusters of accounts using our models linked to people acting on behalf of the Russian influence operation known as “Doppelganger”⁠(opens in a new window). Each cluster displayed different tactics, techniques and procedures (TTPs), consistent with an operation made up of different functional teams.

Behavior

This activity targeted audiences in Europe and North America and focused on generating content for websites and social media.

The first cluster of accounts generated short text comments in English, French, German, Italian and Polish. These were posted on 9GAG and X alongside memes, videos, and links that do not appear to have been generated using our models. Some memes were copied from across the internet and appear to have been years old.

On 9GAG, the accounts that posted this campaign’s content typically featured profile pictures of celebrities or cats. They posted their memes and videos in a wide range of channels, including the “Random” channel and channels dedicated to pets, sports, humor, and even relationships and dating.

Each time the campaign posted a meme or video on 9GAG, three to five accounts would reply, usually with simple messages such as “hahaha” or “lol”. Each of these accounts only ever engaged with this campaign’s content; most were created on the same date. This behavior often attracted critical comments from other users, many of whom called the accounts out as “bots”.

Likely in an attempt to evade detection, this cluster accessed our models using a service linked to companies in Russia and the Czech Republic. This service was aimed at allowing people in Russia to circumvent our supported countries access policy⁠(opens in a new window). We’ve disabled this service’s API access.

Content

Impact assessment

None of the Doppelganger campaigns that we identified appears to have earned substantial positive engagement from authentic audiences.