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Russian Hackers Hijack Bluesky Accounts to Spread Disinformation
Russian hackers have hijacked hundreds of accounts on the Bluesky social media platform, using them to post fake news reports designed to erode public support for Ukraine amid Russia's ongoing war. Bluesky has removed up to 2,000 such posts since they began appearing in waves in April, according to a report by The New York Times, citing the company and Clemson University researchers.
Darren Linvill, director of Clemson's Media Forensics Hub, told the newspaper that the Russians were "clearly still experimenting" after years of relying on fake accounts with fabricated content. "They're always experimenting," he said.
The Clemson researchers, along with a group of internet monitors called the dTeam, linked the posts to the Social Design Agency, a company based in Moscow. The Independent has contacted Bluesky for comment.
Clemson also connected the hacking campaign to a Kremlin influence operation that involves spreading fake news articles appearing to come from legitimate news organizations. This tactic aims to promote false claims by having fact-checkers debunk them, thereby amplifying the disinformation. The Social Design Agency did not respond to a request for comment, The Times reported.
The hackers targeted Bluesky users considered influential in their fields, including journalists, professors, a pollster, an anime artist, and a Hollywood filmmaker. The filmmaker's account was used to post a video in which artificial intelligence made it appear that a Canadian police official was criticizing French President Emmanuel Macron.
Bluesky suspended some hacked accounts until their owners reset them. Pamela Wood, a reporter at The Baltimore Banner, learned she had been targeted when her account was locked while she was on vacation on April 28. Her account had been used to post a video with a caption falsely claiming that The New York Post had linked Ukraine to the attempted assassination of President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents' Association dinner last month.
"Bluesky didn't provide much information but suggested that my account may have been hacked or compromised," Wood said. "My account is rather vanilla — just posting my stories, pretty much — and I hadn't posted or even looked at Bluesky in a few days, so getting hacked made the most sense."
Joseph Bodnar, a researcher with the Institute for Strategic Dialogue who was not involved in the Clemson research, described the hacking operation as having a "level of sophistication beyond what we usually see." He noted that typical hijackings on X involve "random, obscure accounts with crazy avatars," not accounts belonging to moderately known or respected individuals.
Bluesky, which began as an invitation-only platform, opened to the public in February 2024 and grew in popularity after billionaire Elon Musk, owner of X, announced his support for Trump's reelection. However, Bluesky's 42 million users pale in comparison to X's nearly 600 million, according to The Times.
