OpenAI blocks network of accounts linked to the Russian pro-war Telegram channel “Rybar”

ChatGPT developer OpenAI recently announced that it had blocked a network of accounts linked to the Russian pro-war Telegram channel Rybar. A description of the “likely Russia-origin content farm” and its use of ChatGPT for the purposes of disinformation were included in an OpenAI report published on Feb. 25.

The group of Rybar-linked accounts that was identified used ChatGPT to create text content for a range of pro-Kremlin social media channels. Some of the text later appeared on Rybar’s social media accounts and on the project’s website. At least one user also used the Sora model to generate promotional videos.

Although the prompts in question were mostly written in Russian, content was also produced in English and Spanish. The activity also included requests to ChatGPT to generate English-language comments that were then posted on Telegram and Twitter by several different accounts that did not have any clear links to Rybar.

OpenAI called its operation to block the accounts “Fish Food” (as “Rybar” literally means “fisherman” in Russian). In the report, the company said the its chatbot had effectively been used as a “content farm,” detailing how participants in the pro-Kremlin project:

“...asked the model to edit a proposal for what appeared to be a deployed election interference team, apparently in Africa. This proposal included on-the-ground activity as well as online, such as building a network of local agents and organizing large-scale events. A third prompt discussed an information campaign focused on the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Further prompts asked about the electoral process in Burundi and Cameroon and sketched out options for a campaign in Madagascar, including the idea of inflaming protests on the ground. The sums involved were considerable: an estimated annual budget of up to $600,000 for the most ambitious project.”

The chatbot was also asked to translate into English a list of services that the Rybar team could offer to unnamed clients, including “running X and Telegram accounts, a bilingual ‘investigative journalism’ website focused on Africa, paid publications in French-language media, and a network of amplifiers.” The main account linked to Rybar occasionally used ChatGPT to create advertising materials for a publication called “REST Media,” which open-source researchers have linked to Rybar.

The report said the content generated as part of “Fish Food” was “typical of covert Russian influence operations over the years,” typically praising Russia and its allies, such as Belarus, criticized Ukraine, and accused Western countries of foreign interference.

Rybar is one of the largest pro-war projects in Russia’s online space. Its Russian-language Telegram channel has more than 1.5 million subscribers. Its founder is Mikhail Zvinchuk, a former employee with the press service of the Russian Ministry of Defense. In October 2024, the U.S. announced a reward of up to $10 million for information about the whereabouts of the project’s employees.