In a bombshell announcement on Thursday, the X Safety team revealed that it had uncovered and dismantled a sprawling Chinese influence operation running a staggering 200,000 inauthentic accounts. At the center of the effort is a targeted unit of fake profiles pushing propaganda to hijack legitimate debates over American AI and energy policy.
According to X, the bots pushed viral claims that energy-guzzling AI data centers are increasing household electric bills and frying local power grids. To stoke public anger, the bot farm churned out AI-generated cartoons portraying data center operators as greedy pigs lining their pockets at the expense of regular taxpayers.
The X Safety team conducted an investigation into suspected Chinese inauthentic accounts involved in influence operations:
We identified a bot farm of approximately 200,000 accounts. Within this farm, we found 200 accounts posting in a manner that could manipulate a legitimate… pic.twitter.com/Mj0SqerdlH
— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) August 28, 2026
There is serious cash and tradecraft behind bot farms. Modern influence operations generate tens of thousands of dollars a month running fake profiles via scripts or human operators. Rather than using banks of physical computers, many operate out of virtual servers to launch hundreds of fake accounts across the globe. Some post automatically, while human operators step in to amplify specific narratives. This gives the illusion of a massive grassroots movement out of thin air.
The bot farms infest every corner of the web. On social networks like X and Instagram, they buy followers and flood comment sections to artificially boost brands or political causes. On Twitch and YouTube, streaming bots inflate view counts to trick advertisers, as testimony before Congress stated in 2023.
Fake “click bots” drain business advertising budgets on pay-per-click platforms, while SEO bots wreck forums with fake links to trick search engines.
Red flags include badly polished or generic profile photos, accounts created recently that never stop posting, posting on rigid schedules without night breaks, and repetitive comments that ignore direct questions.
Experts point out that while the AI boom is driving stock markets to record highs, the bots are prompting states like Maine to pass bans on new data center construction. Critics blame server farms for soaring utility bills, but research paints a very different picture.
A 2026 study from the Institute for Energy Research (IER) analyzed all 50 states and found no statistical link between data center density and higher electricity costs. In fact, high-growth states saw price increases of just 20% over a decade compared to nearly 40% in low-growth states. National security experts warn about the Chinese Communist Party’s playbook. State Armor CEO Michael Lucci warned that Beijing rarely fights America strength-for-strength, preferring subversion to convince Americans to give up on data centers.
Sarah Cook, senior advisor for China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan at Freedom House, warned the U.S. Senate in 2023:
Freedom House’s research found that Beijing’s media influence efforts extend far beyond what is typical of overt public diplomacy. They involve elements that are covert, coercive, or corrupting, and they are becoming more sophisticated. While activities related to propaganda, disinformation, and censorship are already affecting the media space in many countries, tactics like trainings for officials and investments in communications infrastructure are building up potential avenues for control and influence in the future. …
Tens of thousands of fake accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube have been detected and shuttered for inauthentic behavior, including manipulation of the discourse about events within China (such as prodemocracy protests in Hong Kong and rights abuses in Xinjiang), US relations with Taiwan, the reputation of US-based critics of the Chinese Communist Party, and domestic issues like COVID-19 or US political divisions. This year, similar networks have been reported on a much wider range of platforms, including Reddit, Medium, and Tiktok, among others.
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