
Operated by a former Florida deputy sheriff now living in Moscow, Storm-1516 deployed AI-generated deepfakes and 171 fake news sites to target Western elections — racking up 67 million views and reaching a sitting U.S. Vice President.

Numerous campaigns have been coordinated in a secret Telegram channel that directs these influencers on what to say, where to capture videos, what hashtags to use, and when exactly to post the video.