CopyCop Expands Its Disinformation Network With AI-Generated Content and Global Targets

According to Insikt Group, CopyCop, also known as Storm-1516, is rapidly expanding its disinformation infrastructure and global influence operations. Since March 2025, the Russian covert network has established over 200 new fictional media websites targeting audiences in the United States, France, Canada, and beyond, impersonating media brands and political parties across Europe and the Caucasus, with over 300 websites established by CopyCop’s operators in the year to date.

The analysis notes that CopyCop is increasingly relying on large language models to produce and amplify propaganda, using self-hosted, uncensored versions of Meta’s Llama 3 models, including dolphin-2.9-llama3-8b and Llama-3-8B-Lexi-Uncensored, to mass-produce fabricated narratives without restrictions.

Campaigns are no longer limited to NATO countries and now extend to Moldova, Armenia, and Africa, with target languages including Turkish, Ukrainian, and Swahili, and geographic scope to include Moldova, Canada, and Armenia while continuing to pursue influence in the US and France. In the United States, sites such as All States News and USA Times News have laundered forged documents, while France hosts over 140 fake media outlets impersonating public broadcasters like France Télévisions.

The report emphasises that CopyCop aims to undermine support for Ukraine and exacerbate political fragmentation in Western countries backing Ukraine, aligning closely with Kremlin influence objectives.