How Foreign Trolls on X Are Manipulating U.S. Politics | Pivot

X’s new ‘About This Account’ feature exposed that many prominent “America First” and MAGA accounts are based in Russia, Nigeria, India, and Pakistan, illustrating how cheaply and effectively foreign actors can shape U.S. opinion without traditional military power.

Galloway notes that hostile comment swarms—often from tiny, suspicious accounts—create a false sense of public consensus, nudging influencers and ordinary users toward self-censorship or more extreme positions driven by perceived backlash or praise.

They argue that Russia, China, Iran and others largely favor divisiveness and often the GOP, citing the Ukraine “peace plan” Rubio handled—which senators say resembled a Russian wishlist—as emblematic of Republicans echoing Kremlin talking points.

Swisher highlights Zuckerberg’s early denial of Russian influence on Facebook and Musk’s indifference to X as a “Nazi porn bar,” arguing that both prioritize influence and revenue over mitigation, even as their platforms become core psyops tools.

Gemini’s benchmark performance, integration into Google Search (AI overviews), and early move to monetize via ads rather than subscriptions give Alphabet a powerful path to scale AI, though open models like DeepSeek are looming competitive threats.