X’s Global Government Affairs team has uncovered a massive network of Chinese bots which were being used to influence and manipulate discourse about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and energy policy in the United States. The findings emerged during an investigation carried out by X’s team into suspected Chinese inauthentic accounts involved in influencing public debate in the US.
The investigation revealed that a bot farm consisting of around 200,000 accounts had been posting content to influence public discourse in the US on topics including AI and energy policy. According to the Global Government Affairs team, 200 of these accounts were “posting in a manner that could manipulate a legitimate debate about American AI and energy policy”.
The posts made by these accounts were pushing claims like the AI expansion in the US is taking place at the cost of the general public. The posts contained claims like the AI data centres in the US have been contributing to increased prices of household electricity by adding pressure on the electricity grid.
“These posts contained claims that AI data centres are driving up household electricity prices and straining the grid. Others included AI-generated cartoons that depicted data-centre operators enriching themselves at the public’s expense,” the Global Government Affairs team stated in a post dated 28th August, emphasising that it takes seriously “any attempts to undermine the integrity of the global town square and suspend accounts that violate our Authenticity policy”
The X Safety team conducted an investigation into suspected Chinese inauthentic accounts involved in influence operations:
— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) August 28, 2026
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
The US exposed Chinese hacking platforms
The finding comes days after the US Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced that a Chinese state-sponsored group known as QTFY, linked to a China-based tech company, Nanjing Xinjiuwei Network Technology Company, was disrupting a global botnet to target US critical infrastructure.
The US Justice Department and the FBI claimed that the QTFY group operated QScan and QRouter computer hacking platforms to run hacking campaigns and engage in cyber espionage against China’s rivals as well as allies. The botnet had been active since 2018 and had been targeting US institutions like the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the Federal Reserve, the Department of Energy (DOE), the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and even the Senate.
The QTFY group is part of a wider Chinese strategy combining cyber-espionage, human intelligence, influence operations and election interference to target its rivals.
