Anthropic Caught a User Using Claude to Manufacture Political Support in Kenya

Anthropic caught a user exploiting Claude to manufacture political support in Kenya ahead of the country's 2027 election.

Anthropic discovered an account using Claude to mass-produce political content for X. Anthropic detailed the operation in a threat intelligence report published in September.

The mechanics are what make the case unusual. Instead of asking Claude to write individual posts, the user instructed it to generate X posts in batches of exactly 50. That allowed one person to produce large volumes of political content far faster than they could manually.

The posts were designed to look like spontaneous grassroots reactions. The actor used Claude to generate coordinated praise for Energy Cabinet Secretary Opiyo Wandayi while attacking opposition figures. Anthropic said the prompts were designed to make the posts appear like organic political commentary rather than coordinated messaging.

Anthropic detected the activity, investigated the account and removed it. The company said the operation did not ultimately reach real people, remaining isolated within a network of fake accounts. It also said it could not identify the organisation behind the activity, although the messaging appeared plausibly aligned with Kenya's ruling coalition.