Disrupting a covert Iranian influence operation

OpenAI said it banned ChatGPT accounts tied to the Iranian influence operation Storm-2035 in August 2024 after they generated election and geopolitics content for X, Instagram, and five websites. The company identified 12 X accounts and one Instagram account; on Brookings' Breakout Scale, the operation ranked at the low end of Category 2, with most posts getting few or no likes, shares, or comments. What matters is the workflow: the models were used for long articles, comment rewrites, and English-Spanish posting, not for meaningful audience reach.

Why it matters: HKR-H lands on the covert election-influence angle; HKR-K lands on the account counts, sites, languages, and Breakout Scale 2. HKR-R lands via model-abuse governance, but the score stays at 76 because OpenAI reports no meaningful audience reach.