JOHOR BAHRU: Artificial intelligence (AI) company Anthropic said it has disrupted a commercial election manipulation platform that primarily targeted people in Malaysia.
The operation involved around 1,000 fake social media accounts, a bogus news site and fabricated intelligence dossiers.
It used Anthropic’s Claude AI models to build a system capable of profiling and targeting Malaysian voters by constituency, the American company said in a threat intelligence report published on Thursday (Sep 10).
The report covers activity Anthropic said it disrupted between December 2025 and August 2026, including cyber operations, influence operations, surveillance, scams and fraud and other forms of misuse.
“The platform posed as a defensive cyber intelligence and counter-disinformation tooling outlet,” Anthropic said.
“Nevertheless, our investigation uncovered clear links to BBS Bilisim Teknolojileri, an Istanbul-based technology company, which sold access to the platform as a paid influence-as-a-service capability.”
Anthropic did not identify who paid to use the platform for the Malaysia-focused activity, or whether it was connected to any particular Malaysian election.
It also did not specify exactly when the Malaysia-focused operation took place or how long it ran.
In its case study titled “Disrupting a commercial election-manipulation platform targeting Malaysia”, Anthropic said it identified and removed the Claude account involved and used information gathered from the account to map the wider operation.
CNA has contacted Malaysia’s Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) for comment on Anthropic’s findings, as well as whether Malaysian authorities are investigating the operation and whether BBS Bilisim Teknolojileri or its representatives pursued a contract with the government.
MCMC is Malaysia’s national regulator for the communications and multimedia industry and falls under the Communications Ministry.
