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Disinformation for hire – the network of 70 fake newsrooms sold as a service The websites looked local. Naija Pulse appeared to cover Nigeria, Echo Berlin Germany, The British Daily Britain, Fifty States the United States and Commonwealth Post Australia. Each had its own branding, articles, supposed journalists and matching social-media presence. Taken individually, they resembled small independent news outlets. According to Anthropic, however, they were parts of a single commercial influence network spanning six continents. Anthropic’s September 2026 threat report identifies the operation as GTG-54002, a commercial “influence-as-a-service” network that used Claude to generate and rewrite political content at industrial scale. Investigators linked roughly 70 fabricated news websites to around 70 matching X accounts and more than 250 additional inauthentic commenting accounts designed to create the appearance of genuine public engagement. The network produced at least 8,913 articles in about 20 languages before Anthropic disrupted the activity. The significance of the case is not simply the number of fake sites. It is the business model. The network did not consistently promote one government, party or ideology. Anthropic found that its political position changed according to the apparent interests of different customers. The company therefore described it as a commercial influence operation: political manipulation offered in much the same way as other outsourced digital services. A fake media ecosystem built at scale Anthropic says the infrastructure was created rapidly. Domains were registered from France during a roughly ten-week period in mid-2025 and deployed through shared technical infrastructure, allowing investigators to connect publications that outwardly appeared unrelated. Most of the supporting social-media accounts were also created within a narrow timeframe in June and July 2025. The sites were designed to look like functioning local newsrooms rather than anonymous propaganda pages. Articles carried fabricated bylines belonging to journalists who, according to Anthropic, did not exist. Each outlet had a corresponding account on X, while a second layer of fake profiles commented on and amplified the articles. Many of those accounts used AI-generated profile photographs. The result was a three-tier structure: the newsroom published the story, the branded social account distributed it, and apparently ordinary users supplied the appearance of public reaction. Some of those sites remained publicly visible after the operation was exposed. The British Daily, for example, described itself as providing “conservative insights” on British sovereignty and migration, while Commonwealth Post presented itself as an Australian liberal publication focused on democracy, migration and regional security. Those contrasting editorial identities illustrate the central feature identified by Anthropic: the network was capable of taking different political positions in different markets. Claude as a publishing engine Claude was not simply asked to draft occasional articles. The operators built a structured production pipeline around it. Prompts required fixed JSON outputs, formatted HTML, precise character limits and internal links, allowing articles to move directly into an automated publishing workflow. The system could generate entirely new material or take reporting produced by legitimate journalists and rewrite it to fit a desired political perspective. Anthropic identified three recurring techniques. The same source article could be rewritten in opposite ideological directions for different audiences; a political interpretation could be added to a story that originally contained none; and material could be moved from one country to another after its original context had been removed. The articles were also structured to improve the apparent authority of the sites in search engines, helping the network imitate ordinary digital publishing practices rather than simply broadcasting propaganda. This is where generative AI changes the economics of an influence operation. A conventional network of dozens of supposedly local publications would normally require writers, translators, editors and social-media staff. Here, much of that production could be standardised and automated while human operators concentrated on political direction, customer requirements and distribution. The DRC–Rwanda conflict as a test case The clearest concentration of activity involved the Democratic Republic of Congo. Anthropic identified 318 articles concerning the DRC across the fake-news network. The material generally supported positions aligned with the Congolese government, particularly on regional mineral agreements and tensions with Rwanda. Early in the network’s growth, many of the fake social-media personas following and amplifying its accounts also presented themselves as Congolese. Investigators observed one especially revealing episode on 11 September 2025, when multiple sites published almost identical articles about the DRC–Rwanda conflict within approximately three minutes of one another. The wording and political tone were adjusted for different regional audiences, while associated X accounts distributed the links in a coordinated pattern. Anthropic said the activity contained signals suggesting that one or more customers had interests connected to the DRC–Rwanda conflict. It did not, however, identify those customers and explicitly stated that it found no evidence that any government had directed the operation. That distinction is essential. The content may have benefited a political actor without demonstrating that the actor commissioned or controlled it. Influence without ideology Commercialisation is what distinguishes GTG-54002 from many state-linked information operations. A government propaganda network usually has an identifiable strategic direction. A commercial influence provider does not need one. Its infrastructure can support one position in one country and the opposite position somewhere else, provided different customers are willing to pay. That makes attribution more difficult. Analysts cannot necessarily infer the operator from the ideology of the content because ideology may simply be part of the service package. The enduring asset is the infrastructure: domains, publishing systems, fake journalists, social-media accounts and automated amplification. Anthropic says the operation was disrupted before it achieved significant genuine reach. It classified GTG-54002 as Category Two on the Brookings Breakout Scale: material circulated across the network’s own sites and associated social accounts but showed no evidence of substantial penetration into authentic communities. Most of the 8,913 articles generated little observable engagement from real users. That limited impact is important. The case should not be presented as a successful global manipulation campaign. It is better understood as evidence that the infrastructure required to run such campaigns has become cheaper, faster and increasingly commoditised. The deeper shift is that a fake media ecosystem no longer has to be built around a single political cause. It can be built once, automated and then repurposed for the next customer. Disinformation, in this model, is no longer only a political instrument as it turend into the service. Sources: Anthropic — Countering misuse of AI: September 2026 https://www.anthropic.com/threat-intelligence-report-september-2026 Business Standard — AI scaling fake newsrooms, surveillance and online scams https://www.business-standard.com/technology/tech-news/anthropic-report-ai-fake-newsrooms-dating-surveillance-scams-126091100730_1.html Mimikama — KI baut 70 erfundene Nachrichtenportale https://www.mimikama.org/ki-netzwerk-erfundene-nachrichtenportale-echo-berlin/ Poliscoop Media — Anthropic exposes DRC propaganda network https://www.poliscoopmedia.com/articles/anthropic-exposes-drc-propaganda-network-20260911 The British Daily — example of a fabricated outlet identified in the network https://www.british-daily.com/contact Commonwealth Post — example of a fabricated outlet identified in the network https://commonwealth-post.com/category/science MalPulse — infrastructure references for network domains https://www.malpulse.com/infra-pivots/usom-pivots/list/?page=1105 Keywords: #DISINFORMED #Episode13 #DisinformationAsAService #InfluenceAsAService #FakeNewsrooms #FakeMedia #SyntheticMedia #ArtificialIntelligence #AI #GenerativeAI #ClaudeAI #Anthropic #Disinformation #InfluenceOperations #InformationWarfare #FIMI #CommercialInfluence #PoliticalManipulation #NarrativeManipulation #NarrativeLaundering #SourceLaundering #MediaImpersonation #FakeJournalists #SyntheticPersonas #Astroturfing #SocialMediaManipulation #CoordinatedInauthenticBehaviour #CIB #DigitalInfluence #AutomatedPropaganda #ContentAutomation #AIPropaganda #LKMCompany #NaijaPulse #AxumVoices #JamboJournal #EchoBerlin #TheBritishDaily #FiftyStates #CommonwealthPost #DRC #Rwanda #OSINT #WRLD

After Yabloko started polling at around 10%, Putin quickly banned it. It's incredibly funny (and sad) how the Kremlin still claims that they have free elections in Russia, when people are voting at gunpoint and election officials who report election scams die mysteriously. #Russia #FreeElections #Yabloko #RU

The article discusses a sophisticated cyberattack attempt on a journalist from Seznam Zprávy, where attackers posed as academics to lure the reporter into installing malicious software, ultimately highlighting the dangers of such scams in targeting investigative professionals. #kybernetickábezpečnost #investigativnížurnalistika #spearphishing

🇺🇸 RFK Jr. revealed the Biden administration gutted anti-fraud oversight at his agency. There used to be 80 people watching over $2.2 trillion in annual payments across 50 states. Xavier Becerra transferred 76 of them out. When RFK Jr. took over, only six were left. He said it was an open invitation for fraudsters. Fake hospices billed for thousands of phantom patients. Durable medical equipment and autism services scams ran into the tens of billions, especially in LA. The old policy was literally “pay and chase.” Send the money first, then try to get it back later. https://x.com/MarioNawfal/status/2087356394299420918

Einer der größten Scams der Neuzeit: > Linke Parteien fördern ihnen wohlgesonnene Wirtschaftsinstitute mit Steuergeld > Parteien sorgen dafür, dass Vertreter regelmäßig im ÖRR sprechen dürfen > Die Reichweite macht sie auf dem Papier zu "relevanten Ökonomen" >> Anschließend wird die Bevölkerung beinahe täglich mit Schlagzeilen wie "Top-Ökonom lobt Rentenpläne der SPD" konfrontiert >> Dem Großteil der Wähler fehlt die ökonomische Kompetenz sich eine eigene Meinung zu bilden >> Der Experte wird als vermeintlich neutral verkauft Ein cleverer Scam. Er würde m.M.n. noch besser funktionieren, wenn es inzwischen nicht völlig abstrus übertrieben werden würde. So abstrus, dass es immer mehr Menschen durchschauen. #Scam #Wirtschaft #Politik

Writers beware 🚨 There are soooo many scams targeting writers at the moment. I’m getting 2-3 scam emails a day. I guess AI has made it really quick & easy to target us more convincingly now (most include a flattering synopsis of your work etc.) Double/triple check everything!!! #WritersBeware #ScamAlert #WritingCommunity #Nospecificcountriesarementionedinthetweet.

Als de VRT zich wil gedragen als een commerciële zender, moeten we die privatiseren. Belastinggeld moet niet dienen om de private markt te beconcurreren. De enige die van dit soort scams beter wordt, is de BV-kaste zelf. Door overheidsconcurrentie wordt hun waarde immers kunstmatig opgekrikt. Afschaffen die handel! #afuera #VRT #privatisering #belastingen

Artykuł opisuje rosnący problem oszustw romantycznych związanych z kryptowalutami, zwanych crypto romance scams, które działają na podobieństwo korporacji zorganizowanych przestępczości, wykorzystując emocje ofiar oraz nowoczesne technologie, a ich skala jest znacznie większa, niż sugerują oficjalne statystyki. #scam #kryptowaluty #bezpieczeństwo

Beware of deepfakes and scams online ⚠️📱 A fake video of me is circulating promoting a financial scam. This is completely false. Please be vigilant and always take care online. 🛑 https://t.co/BkbgPrSeLP #Deepfake #ScamAlert #OnlineSafety #Nospecificcountrycodesarementionedinthetweet.

A world champion Irish dancer, Amie Donaghey, has been left with a criminal conviction after being duped by a "ghost broker" selling fake car insurance, highlighting the prevalence of such scams targeting young motorists in the UK. #InsuranceFraud #ScamAwareness #GhostBroker #IE #GB #NI #ENG #WA

A world champion Irish dancer, Amie Donaghey, was left with a criminal conviction after being scammed by a "ghost broker" who sold her a fake car insurance policy, highlighting the growing issue of such scams targeting young motorists in the UK. #InsuranceFraud #GhostBroker #CarInsurance #IE #GB #NI #ENG

World champion Irish dancer Amie Donaghey was left with a criminal conviction after being deceived by a "ghost broker" into believing she had valid car insurance, despite paying for a fake policy, highlighting the growing issue of insurance fraud targeting young drivers in the UK. #InsuranceFraud #Scams #ConsumerProtection #IE #GB #NI #ENG #WAL

The article reveals how a Ugandan dog named Raset, showcased in emotionally manipulative fundraising campaigns on social media for purported rescue efforts, became a victim of a widespread scam exploiting animal suffering, ultimately highlighting a problematic intersection between online charity and animal cruelty, where thousands of dollars have been siphoned from unsuspecting donors without improving the animals' conditions. #AnimalWelfare #Scams #OnlineActivism #GB #UG

The article reveals that the dog Raset, featured in numerous fundraising campaigns on social media, was part of a scam in Uganda, where false shelters exploit online donations by showcasing abused and injured animals, misleading donors globally, while many of these animals, including Raset, suffer from long-term mistreatment, raising awareness about the consequences of impulsive philanthropic support. #AnimalWelfare #Scams #AnimalRescue #GB #UG