US labels satirical RT video a national security threat

A clip by the Russian network made it into Washington’s latest homeland threat assessment report

The US Department of Homeland Security has released a new threat assessment report highlighting the dangers facing Washington. Among other things, it warns of AI technology by foreign actors to spread alleged “disinformation” – and presents an obviously satirical video by RT as an example of such activities.

The report, released last week, states that Washington’s “nation-state adversaries,” including Russia, China, and Iran, “continue to develop the most sophisticated malign influence campaigns online.” The alleged effort is now boosted by AI technology, which enables “the rapid creation of an endless supply of higher quality, more idiomatically correct text,” which purportedly gives the US’ adversaries a “greater aura of credibility.”

“Russian influence actors have used new AI technology in select cases to augment their operations. For instance, in June, an RT (formerly Russia Today) social media account created and shared a deepfake AI-generated video disparaging the US President and other Western leaders,” the assessment reads.

West runs out of ideas for sanctions, RT keeps running pic.twitter.com/wc95voKRpx

— RT (@RT_com) June 14, 2023

The example listed apparently refers to a video released by RT back in June that portrays Western leaders, including US President Joe Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, and President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen using various unorthodox techniques in search for inspiration to hatch a new package of anti-Russian sanctions. The obviously satire video was never advertised by RT as actual footage of the process of developing sanctions.