A fake video falsely claiming USAID paid millions to celebrities for Ukraine visits was created by Russian disinformation operatives and amplified by Elon Musk on X, spreading misinformation during the Trump administration's dismantling of USAID.
A Russian disinformation campaign called Operation Overload created a fake video purporting to be from E!News that falsely claimed the U.S. Agency for International Development paid celebrities like Angelina Jolie ($20 million), Ben Stiller ($4 million), and Sean Penn ($5 million) to visit Ukraine and boost President Zelensky's popularity. The video first appeared on X from an account known for spreading Russian disinformation and was then reposted by Elon Musk to his 220 million followers, as well as by Donald Trump Jr. This occurred during the Trump administration's dismantling of USAID, with Musk leading efforts to shut down the agency. The fake video garnered over 4 million views before being debunked by X's Community Notes and statements from E!News and Ben Stiller himself. Researchers at Clemson University's Media Forensics Hub traced the video to the Russian influence campaign, which typically creates AI-generated voice-overs paired with real images and fake news logos. The incident was part of a broader pattern where out of 135 Kremlin-aligned propaganda posts, 134 failed to gain traction, but this one succeeded due to Musk's amplification. The disinformation campaign aimed to weaken NATO support for Ukraine and disrupt domestic U.S. politics.
Domain classification, causal taxonomy, severity scores, and national security assessments were LLM-classified and may contain errors.
Using AI systems to conduct large-scale disinformation campaigns, malicious surveillance, or targeted and sophisticated automated censorship and propaganda, with the aim of manipulating political processes, public opinion, and behavior.
AI system
Due to a decision or action made by an AI system
Intentional
Due to an expected outcome from pursuing a goal
Post-deployment
Occurring after the AI model has been trained and deployed