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AI incident #701 ·

American Asylum Seeker John Mark Dougan in Russia Reportedly Spreads Disinformation via AI Tools and Fake News Network

Open on the AI Incident Database 36 news reports Snapshot 7 Sep 2026

What happened

John Mark Dougan, a former Florida sheriff's deputy granted asylum in Russia, has been implicated in spreading disinformation. Utilizing AI tools like OpenAI's ChatGPT and DALL-E 3, Dougan created over 160 fake news sites, disseminating false narratives to millions worldwide. His actions align with Russian disinformation strategies targeting Western democracies. See also Incident 734.

Only the incident metadata is stored here. The underlying news reports are on the AI Incident Database (CC BY-SA 4.0); use the links above to read them.

News reports (21)

Coverage catalogued by the AI Incident Database. Titles link to the original publisher; the text is not reproduced here.

  1. Once a Sheriff’s Deputy in Florida, Now a Source of Disinformation From Russia
    nytimes.com · Steven Lee Myers · AIID #3911
  2. Russian disinformation sites linked to former Florida deputy sheriff, research finds
    nbcnews.com · Brandy Zadrozny · AIID #4858
  3. A tale of Russian propaganda, international intrigue and pink slime — with a Boston angle
    dankennedy.net · Dan Kennedy · AIID #4869
  4. 160 fake news sites promoting Russian propaganda linked to former Florida sheriff turned agent
    gigazine.net · Gigazine · AIID #4882
  5. ロシアのプロパガンダを発信する160の偽ニュースサイトは工作員になった元フロリダ州保安官とつながっている
    gigazine.net · Gigazine · AIID #4883
  6. Palm Beach County ex-cop and cyberstalker has a new life as a Putin toady
    sun-sentinel.com · Pat Beall · AIID #4880
  7. How a fugitive Florida sheriff became a Kremlin disinformation impresario
    newsweek.com · McKenzie Sadeghi, Eva Maitland · AIID #4863
  8. A Bugatti, a first lady and the fake stories aimed at Americans
    bbc.com · Paul Myers, Olga Robinson, Shayan Sardarizadeh · AIID #4859
  9. Pro-Russia 'news' sites spew incendiary US election falsehoods
    france24.com · France 24, AFP · AIID #4877
  10. За фейком о Зеленском и «машине Гитлера» стоит поддельное американское СМИ. Его связывают с Россией
    golosameriki.com · Мэттью Купфер · AIID #4875
  11. Russian disinformation groups promoting false claims about Gov. Tim Walz, experts say
    cbsnews.com · Erielle Delzer, Rhona Tarrant · AIID #4878
  12. American creating deepfakes targeting Harris works with Russian intel, documents show
    washingtonpost.com · Catherine Belton · AIID #4860
  13. Purveyor of fake Chicago news website paid by Russia
    chicago.suntimes.com · Mitchell Armentrout · AIID #4864
  14. Former Maine cop is making Kamala Harris and Tim Walz disinformation in Russia
    bangordailynews.com · Christopher Burns · AIID #4865
  15. Former Florida sheriff's deputy linked to Russian misinformation campaign
    wpbf.com · Malcolm Shields · AIID #4866
  16. Who Is John Mark Dougan? Ex-Florida Sheriff Allegedly Paid By Russia To Create Kamala Harris Deepfakes
    timesnownews.com · Arkaprovo Roy · AIID #4870
  17. VOA Russian: Fake American media linked to Russia is behind Zelenskyy and 'Hitler's car'
    voanews.com · Matthew Kupfer · AIID #4876
  18. NewsGuard’s 2024 Disinformer of the Year: John Mark Dougan
    newsguardrealitycheck.com · McKenzie Sadeghi · AIID #4862
  19. Russian-linked bots sow fear, distrust ahead of German vote, researchers find
    jpost.com · Reuters · AIID #4867
  20. Russian-linked bots sow fear, distrust ahead of German vote, researchers find
    reuters.com · Thomas Escritt · AIID #4868
  21. John Dougan: Russian Intelligence’s American Propagandist
    greydynamics.com · Raquel Ramirez Recio · AIID #4861

Who was involved

Alleged harmed party
Journalistic Integrity, Information Integrity, General Public, American Citizens

Classification (MIT AI Risk Repository taxonomy)

Causal entity
Human
Intent
Intentional
Timing
Post-deployment
Harm level
—
Sectors
—
Countries
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Risk entries describing this failure mode

Entries from the MIT AI Risk Repository coded to subdomain 4.1.

  • Electoral interference

    "Electoral interference - Generation of false or misleading information that can interrupt or mislead voters and/or undermine trust in electoral processes."

    A Collaborative, Human-Centred Taxonomy of AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Harms (Abercrombie2024)

  • Political manipulation

    "Political manipulation - Use or misuse of personal data to target individuals’ interests, personalities and vulnerabilities with tailored political messages via micro-advertising or deepfakes/synthetic media."

    A Collaborative, Human-Centred Taxonomy of AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Harms (Abercrombie2024)

  • Coercion/manipulation

    "Coercion/manipulation - Use of a technology system to covertly alter user beliefs and behaviour using nudging, dark patterns and/or other opaque techniques, resulting in potential erosion of privacy, addiction, anxiety/...

    A Collaborative, Human-Centred Taxonomy of AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Harms (Abercrombie2024)

  • Political and Economic

    "Political and Economic - Manipulation of political beliefs, damage to political institutions and the effective delivery of government services."

    A Collaborative, Human-Centred Taxonomy of AI, Algorithmic, and Automation Harms (Abercrombie2024)

  • Biased influence through citizen screening and tailored propaganda

    "AI-powered chatbots tailor their communication approach to influence individual users' decisions. In the UK, a form of initial computational propaganda has already happened during the Brexit referendum. In future, there...

    The Rise of Artificial Intelligence - Future Outlooks and Emerging Risks (Allianz2018)

  • Political

    "In the UK, a form of initial computational propaganda has already happened during the Brexit referendum1 . In future, there are concerns that oppressive governments could use AI to shape citizens’ opinions"

    The Rise of Artificial Intelligence - Future Outlooks and Emerging Risks (Allianz2018)

  • Surveillance and Censorship

    "Content moderation has emerged as one of the key use-cases of LLMs (Weng et al., 2023), indicating the potential of LLMs for surveillance and censorship as well (Edwards, 2023). Surveillance and censorship are one of th...

    Foundational Challenges in Assuring Alignment and Safety of Large Language Models (Anwar2024)

  • Disinformation and manipulation of public opinion

    "AI, particularly general- purpose AI, can be maliciously used for disinformation (351), which for the purpose of this report refers to false information that was generated or spread with the deliberate intent to mislead...

    International Scientific Report on the Safety of Advanced AI (Bengio2024)

Incidents in the same risk subdomain

All incidents in this subdomain