OpenAI banned accounts linked to the Rybar network, some of which likely originated in Russia, that used AI to support multilingual influence activity across websites and social platforms.

This case study was originally published in OpenAI’s February 2026⁠(opens in a new window) report on disrupting malicious uses of AI.

We banned a set of ChatGPT accounts that were linked to the “Rybar” (“Рыбарь”, in Russian, “fisherman”) network on Telegram and X. At least some of the accounts likely originated in Russia. The network generated content that was posted across the internet, sometimes by “Rybar”- branded accounts, and sometimes by social media accounts that bore no declared relationship to “Rybar”. One user also asked ChatGPT to help draw up commercial plans on behalf of “Rybar” for covert interference campaigns in Africa. Based on the way the actors used ChatGPT to feed content to the “Rybar” network and beyond, we have dubbed this operation “Fish Food”.

The main activity we detected across this network was generating content for posting on social media. Users typically prompted in Russian, but generated content in a range of languages, notably Russian, English, and Spanish. Some of this content was then posted online by “Rybar”-branded social media accounts and the main “Rybar” website. One user also generated Sora videos promoting the “Rybar” brand.

As well as generating content that was posted online by branded “Rybar” accounts, the main user in this case also generated batches of English-language comments. Using open-source investigative techniques, we identified exact language matches to many of these generated comments being posted post on Rybar’s Telegram channel.

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