Investigative journalist Hristo Grozev has cautioned that disinformation operations are shifting away from social media platforms towards artificial intelligence systems, naming Bulgaria as one of the countries already in the crosshairs.
AI Systems Replacing TikTok as the Primary Propaganda Target
Grozev, who has been invited to support the Bulgarian caretaker government’s mechanism at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to counter disinformation ahead of the upcoming elections, said that a coordinated campaign to manipulate AI systems is already underway, Fakti.bg reports.
“The most dangerous social network in the near future will not be TikTok or Facebook, but the agents of artificial intelligence themselves,” he said, explaining that vast amounts of content are being generated not for human readers but to be indexed by AI systems. “This way, you can influence what answer you will get when you ask which party is the best,” he added.
The warning connects to a broader pattern Grozev has documented in Russian intelligence operations. He cited a Washington Post publication on alleged Russian scenarios, including a staged assassination attempt on Viktor Orban, describing the leaked documents as authentic. “A year and a half ago, we obtained documents that describe the so-called ‘active actions under a false flag,’ panic operations in the pre-election period,” he said, explaining that the goal is to create an atmosphere of fear that delivers an electoral bonus to parties promising order and security. “Creating fear, whether economic or from terrorism, makes people withdraw into themselves. Then the population loses interest in global problems and becomes a very convenient resource for populist regimes,” he added.
Bulgaria: External Influence and Voter Suppression
On the situation in Bulgaria, which heads to parliamentary elections on April 19, Grozev drew a distinction between legitimate domestic campaigning and foreign interference. “It is legitimate for every party to try to convince voters. It is illegitimate when the influence comes from outside,” he said, identifying Russia, Iran, and China as sources of such external influence.
He also noted that modern disinformation does not always aim to boost a specific party. Its goal may instead be to prevent people from voting at all, a tactic that Insight News Media has documented across the pro-Kremlin narratives circulating in Bulgarian media ahead of the vote, as well as in its analysis of how the April elections could open the door to a pro-Russian revanche in Sofia.
Naming Networks, Not Refuting Fakes
As the most effective countermeasure, Grozev pointed to the exposure and sanctioning of participants in disinformation networks rather than fact-checking individual stories. “When you start publishing their names and sanctioning them, this acts preventively. It is more effective to attack the centres of disinformation, servers, networks, and IP addresses than to refute every fake news,” he explained.
Grozev stated that he holds information on such networks with links to Bulgaria and expressed confidence that authorities would act within the coming weeks. Bulgaria has a long-documented vulnerability to Russian influence operations: investigators have previously identified a network of nearly 400 websites created to broadcast pro-Kremlin narratives to Bulgarian audiences, while a separate investigation found that Russia spent approximately 70 million euros on hybrid influence operations targeting Bulgaria and Romania.
