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Entities

Information manipulation actors in Russia

Incidents involved as Deployer

Incident 17021 Report
Russia-Linked Matryoshka Influence Operation Reportedly Used AI-Cloned Celebrity Voices and Fabricated News-Style Videos to Target Democratic Candidates Ahead of 2026 U.S. Midterms

2026-09-10

Researchers attributed a September 2026 influence campaign targeting U.S. Democratic Senate candidates to the Russia-linked Matryoshka/Operation Overload network. The campaign reportedly used AI-cloned celebrity voices and fabricated, news-branded videos to spread false or unsubstantiated claims on social media. Celebrities and CNN rejected the manipulated statements and unauthorized branding, which were intended to influence U.S. voters before the midterms.

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Related Entities
Other entities that are related to the same incident. For example, if the developer of an incident is this entity but the deployer is another entity, they are marked as related entities.
 

Entity

Synthetic media creators

Incidents involved as Deployer
  • Incident 1702
    1 Report

    Russia-Linked Matryoshka Influence Operation Reportedly Used AI-Cloned Celebrity Voices and Fabricated News-Style Videos to Target Democratic Candidates Ahead of 2026 U.S. Midterms

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Entity

Storm-1679

Incidents involved as Deployer
  • Incident 1702
    1 Report

    Russia-Linked Matryoshka Influence Operation Reportedly Used AI-Cloned Celebrity Voices and Fabricated News-Style Videos to Target Democratic Candidates Ahead of 2026 U.S. Midterms

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Entity

Russian state-linked actors

Incidents involved as Deployer
  • Incident 1702
    1 Report

    Russia-Linked Matryoshka Influence Operation Reportedly Used AI-Cloned Celebrity Voices and Fabricated News-Style Videos to Target Democratic Candidates Ahead of 2026 U.S. Midterms

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Entity

Pro-Russian information manipulation actors

Incidents involved as Deployer
  • Incident 1702
    1 Report

    Russia-Linked Matryoshka Influence Operation Reportedly Used AI-Cloned Celebrity Voices and Fabricated News-Style Videos to Target Democratic Candidates Ahead of 2026 U.S. Midterms

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Entity

Operation Overload

Incidents involved as Deployer
  • Incident 1702
    1 Report

    Russia-Linked Matryoshka Influence Operation Reportedly Used AI-Cloned Celebrity Voices and Fabricated News-Style Videos to Target Democratic Candidates Ahead of 2026 U.S. Midterms

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Entity

Matryoshka

Incidents involved as Deployer
  • Incident 1702
    1 Report

    Russia-Linked Matryoshka Influence Operation Reportedly Used AI-Cloned Celebrity Voices and Fabricated News-Style Videos to Target Democratic Candidates Ahead of 2026 U.S. Midterms

More
Entity

Information manipulation actors

Incidents involved as Deployer
  • Incident 1702
    1 Report

    Russia-Linked Matryoshka Influence Operation Reportedly Used AI-Cloned Celebrity Voices and Fabricated News-Style Videos to Target Democratic Candidates Ahead of 2026 U.S. Midterms

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Entity

Influence operation groups

Incidents involved as Deployer
  • Incident 1702
    1 Report

    Russia-Linked Matryoshka Influence Operation Reportedly Used AI-Cloned Celebrity Voices and Fabricated News-Style Videos to Target Democratic Candidates Ahead of 2026 U.S. Midterms

More
Entity

Deepfake creators

Incidents involved as Deployer
  • Incident 1702
    1 Report

    Russia-Linked Matryoshka Influence Operation Reportedly Used AI-Cloned Celebrity Voices and Fabricated News-Style Videos to Target Democratic Candidates Ahead of 2026 U.S. Midterms

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Entity

Voice cloning technology developers

Incidents involved as Developer
  • Incident 1702
    1 Report

    Russia-Linked Matryoshka Influence Operation Reportedly Used AI-Cloned Celebrity Voices and Fabricated News-Style Videos to Target Democratic Candidates Ahead of 2026 U.S. Midterms

More
Entity

Synthetic media generation technology developers

Incidents involved as Developer
  • Incident 1702
    1 Report

    Russia-Linked Matryoshka Influence Operation Reportedly Used AI-Cloned Celebrity Voices and Fabricated News-Style Videos to Target Democratic Candidates Ahead of 2026 U.S. Midterms

More
Entity

Deepfake technology developers

Incidents involved as Developer
  • Incident 1702
    1 Report

    Russia-Linked Matryoshka Influence Operation Reportedly Used AI-Cloned Celebrity Voices and Fabricated News-Style Videos to Target Democratic Candidates Ahead of 2026 U.S. Midterms

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Entity

Voters in the United States

Incidents Harmed By
  • Incident 1702
    1 Report

    Russia-Linked Matryoshka Influence Operation Reportedly Used AI-Cloned Celebrity Voices and Fabricated News-Style Videos to Target Democratic Candidates Ahead of 2026 U.S. Midterms

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Entity

Voters

Incidents Harmed By
  • Incident 1702
    1 Report

    Russia-Linked Matryoshka Influence Operation Reportedly Used AI-Cloned Celebrity Voices and Fabricated News-Style Videos to Target Democratic Candidates Ahead of 2026 U.S. Midterms

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Entity

Public figures

Incidents Harmed By
  • Incident 1702
    1 Report

    Russia-Linked Matryoshka Influence Operation Reportedly Used AI-Cloned Celebrity Voices and Fabricated News-Style Videos to Target Democratic Candidates Ahead of 2026 U.S. Midterms

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Entity

Politicians in the United States

Incidents Harmed By
  • Incident 1702
    1 Report

    Russia-Linked Matryoshka Influence Operation Reportedly Used AI-Cloned Celebrity Voices and Fabricated News-Style Videos to Target Democratic Candidates Ahead of 2026 U.S. Midterms

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Entity

Politicians

Incidents Harmed By
  • Incident 1702
    1 Report

    Russia-Linked Matryoshka Influence Operation Reportedly Used AI-Cloned Celebrity Voices and Fabricated News-Style Videos to Target Democratic Candidates Ahead of 2026 U.S. Midterms

More
Entity

Political candidates targeted by deepfakes

Incidents Harmed By
  • Incident 1702
    1 Report

    Russia-Linked Matryoshka Influence Operation Reportedly Used AI-Cloned Celebrity Voices and Fabricated News-Style Videos to Target Democratic Candidates Ahead of 2026 U.S. Midterms

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Entity

Epistemic integrity

Incidents Harmed By
  • Incident 1702
    1 Report

    Russia-Linked Matryoshka Influence Operation Reportedly Used AI-Cloned Celebrity Voices and Fabricated News-Style Videos to Target Democratic Candidates Ahead of 2026 U.S. Midterms

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Entity

Democratic integrity

Incidents Harmed By
  • Incident 1702
    1 Report

    Russia-Linked Matryoshka Influence Operation Reportedly Used AI-Cloned Celebrity Voices and Fabricated News-Style Videos to Target Democratic Candidates Ahead of 2026 U.S. Midterms

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Entity

deepfaked celebrities

Incidents Harmed By
  • Incident 1702
    1 Report

    Russia-Linked Matryoshka Influence Operation Reportedly Used AI-Cloned Celebrity Voices and Fabricated News-Style Videos to Target Democratic Candidates Ahead of 2026 U.S. Midterms

More
Entity

Celebrities

Incidents Harmed By
  • Incident 1702
    1 Report

    Russia-Linked Matryoshka Influence Operation Reportedly Used AI-Cloned Celebrity Voices and Fabricated News-Style Videos to Target Democratic Candidates Ahead of 2026 U.S. Midterms

More
Entity

X (Twitter)

Incidents implicated systems
  • Incident 1702
    1 Report

    Russia-Linked Matryoshka Influence Operation Reportedly Used AI-Cloned Celebrity Voices and Fabricated News-Style Videos to Target Democratic Candidates Ahead of 2026 U.S. Midterms

More
Entity

Voice cloning technology

Incidents implicated systems
  • Incident 1702
    1 Report

    Russia-Linked Matryoshka Influence Operation Reportedly Used AI-Cloned Celebrity Voices and Fabricated News-Style Videos to Target Democratic Candidates Ahead of 2026 U.S. Midterms

More
Entity

TikTok

Incidents implicated systems
  • Incident 1702
    1 Report

    Russia-Linked Matryoshka Influence Operation Reportedly Used AI-Cloned Celebrity Voices and Fabricated News-Style Videos to Target Democratic Candidates Ahead of 2026 U.S. Midterms

More
Entity

Social media platforms

Incidents implicated systems
  • Incident 1702
    1 Report

    Russia-Linked Matryoshka Influence Operation Reportedly Used AI-Cloned Celebrity Voices and Fabricated News-Style Videos to Target Democratic Candidates Ahead of 2026 U.S. Midterms

More
Entity

Deepfake technology

Incidents implicated systems
  • Incident 1702
    1 Report

    Russia-Linked Matryoshka Influence Operation Reportedly Used AI-Cloned Celebrity Voices and Fabricated News-Style Videos to Target Democratic Candidates Ahead of 2026 U.S. Midterms

More
Entity

Bluesky

Incidents implicated systems
  • Incident 1702
    1 Report

    Russia-Linked Matryoshka Influence Operation Reportedly Used AI-Cloned Celebrity Voices and Fabricated News-Style Videos to Target Democratic Candidates Ahead of 2026 U.S. Midterms

More

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