Utah governor warns of foreign nations using bots to inflame tensions online following Charlie Kirk murder
Social media division after assassination
After the murder of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, Utah Governor Spencer Cox is warning that enemy nations are weaponizing social media to incite violence and sow division among Americans. Genevieve Curtis reports.
TAMPA, Fla. - After the murder of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, Utah Governor Spencer Cox is warning that enemy nations are weaponizing social media to incite violence and sow division among Americans.
"There is a tremendous amount of disinformation we are tracking," said Cox.
What we know:
Scrolling through social media in the last few days, the country can feel more divided than ever. But, Cox said many of the posts fueling outrage are not from fellow Americans.
"What we are seeing is our adversaries want violence," Cox said. "We have bots from Russia, China, all over the world that are trying to instill disinformation and encourage violence."
Cox is urging people to step away from toxic online spaces.
MORE: The Fast & Curious: Why Tampa Bay area residents watch social media videos at twice the speed
"I would encourage you to ignore those, to turn off those streams and spend more time with our families. We desperately need some healing," he said.
What they're saying:
Cybersecurity strategist Paul Keener with GuidePoint Security said bots are far more common than many realize, making up as much as 20-30% of all internet traffic.
A 2023 study found the issue may be even bigger, with more than half of all cyber traffic traced back to bots. Not all of those are bad actors, but in moments of difficulty, the bad actors can become more aggressive.
"Especially in times like this where there's polarizing content, you know, the tone becomes super aggressive or polarizing or the replies are context insensitive," said Keener.
READ: YouTube to use AI to detect kids lying about their age
Dig deeper:
"It's a part of modern warfare," Cybersecurity expert Erich Kron said.
In a digital age, foreign adversaries weaponize social media to sow division. When Americans fight internally, it makes the nation more vulnerable to outside threats.
"United as a nation, we tend to be very strong when we come together. But when we're bickering internally, it really weakens a lot of things," Kron said.
AI tools are making it easier than ever, resulting in a level of bot-generated content we’ve never seen before.
"They can generate the graphics. They can even generate the content or do the translations. They can do all of this at a scale we've never been able to do before. So the cost to be able to do this kind of stuff is quite minimal compared to the way it was just three, four years ago. It's not an expensive foray for them to get into, but it is pretty impactful," said Kron.
MORE: Social media use triples depression symptoms for pre-teens: Study
Why you should care:
"I think we just need to be very, very careful with all of the things that we hear or see on social media," Kron said. "It's designed to give us an emotional hit and get us riled up, so that we're going to turn around very quickly and share it with other people."
The more outrageous and inflammatory a post is, the more clicks it gets, which means algorithms push it to more people. The more you consume, the more the algorithm sends you similar content.
"It can be rough on your soul to see all of this all the time and think, wow, you know what, this is a terrible thing," Kron said. "But if you actually step out and talk to other people, it's not generally this bad."
Keener says there are clear warning signs that an account may not be real:
- Recently created profiles with unusual or random names or random numbers
- Recycled content posted across multiple accounts
- Unnatural posting behavior, such as activity that continues 24/7
"Are the profiles recently created? Do the names look weird? Are you seeing a bunch of recycled content across multiple accounts?" Keener explained. "Another one is posting behavior. If it's unnatural, like they're active all the time, that's a big red flag."
Keener said it's important to take time to evaluate the source.
"Does it look real? Does it act like a human? And that way it becomes a little bit easier to step back and kind of power down a little," he said.
What you can do:
If you encounter harassing messages or threats of violence online:
- Report them to the platform directly
- File a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)
- Contact local police if the threat is nearby
The Source: Sources for this report include statements during an FBI press conference by Utah Governor Spencer Cox and interviews with two cybersecurity experts.