UAE-directed campaign used Claude to target Muslim Brotherhood and Sudan

A UAE-directed online campaign, aimed at dismantling the Muslim Brotherhood, Sudan, and the United Nations, has been detected and disrupted, according to Anthropic, an artificial intelligence (AI) company. The operation utilized Anthropic’s AI assistant, Claude, to create a network of approximately 300 fake social media accounts across Europe, the United States, and the Middle East. These accounts were designed to shape discourse on the Muslim Brotherhood, Sudan, and the UN.

The campaign involved the creation of a "front NGO" that copied the identity of a legitimate Swiss organization. This NGO published state-authored human rights reports under the false identity. The actor also ghostwrote official testimonies, with the aim of having them delivered during the 62nd session of the UN Human Rights Council. Notably, the content was engineered with specific restrictions to ensure that neither speech mentioned the UAE, making the operation difficult to trace.

Anthropic's investigation traced the operation back to high confidence to UAE government officials. The operation involved researching and profiling 18 members of the European Parliament and prominent journalists. The AI company stated that the actor compiled counter-accountability dossiers on UN Special Rapporteurs who had criticized UAE's conduct in Sudan. Senior Emirati officials were identified as intended recipients of the work.