America sanctioned two Iranian and Russian groups on the charge of “spreading false information about the elections”.

The United States has sanctioned groups in Russia and Iran for trying to interfere in the 2024 presidential election. On Tuesday, December 31, the Ministry of Treasury announced that these groups have tried to influence voters by creating socio-political tensions.

One such group, the Moscow-based Center for Geopolitics, is linked to Russia’s military intelligence agency (GRU). The group had created a server to host their AI tools to avoid external web hosting services blocking their activities. He then used these tools to rapidly generate disinformation.

According to reports, false information was being published on dozens of fake news sites. The organization also paid companies in the United States to maintain its AI server and manage a network of at least 100 websites used in the campaign.

The Russian group also created and released a manipulated video to make baseless accusations against one of the 2024 vice-presidential candidates. In October, the United States accused Russia of producing a video to destroy Kamala Harris’ campaign partner, Tim Walz.

The US Treasury also sanctioned an Iranian group for planning to interfere in elections at least from 2023. In the weeks leading up to the election, the US Department of Justice accused Iranian citizens of launching a cyber attack against President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign. At the same time, OpenAI blocked accounts related to Iranian influence operations on ChatGPT.

“Iran and Russia have targeted our election processes and institutions and attempted to divide the American people through targeted disinformation campaigns,” Acting Deputy Treasury Secretary Bradley Smith said in a statement.