Fake Video of Migrants Voting Was Russia Propaganda, US Says
(Bloomberg) -- Two videos that falsely appeared to show voting fraud and political corruption were manufactured by pro-Russian groups, according to a statement Friday from US officials.
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One video appeared to show individuals who claimed to be from Haiti illegally casting votes for Vice President Kamala Harris in multiple counties in Georgia, an image that spread on the social media platform X. The video is an example of targeted disinformation, according to the statement from the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Thursday had asked X to remove the video, suggesting it was the work of a Russian troll farm. The original post appears to have been deleted, though other accounts with large numbers of followers previously amplified the footage.
Pro-Kremlin operatives have focused their efforts on the presidential election for months, according to US officials and security analysts tracking online misinformation. A recent artificial intelligence-generated video of Harris falsely depicted the Democratic candidate making incendiary remarks about her Republican challenger, former President Donald Trump, Microsoft Corp. determined. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence also said in October that Russian propagandists had produced videos of vice presidential candidate Tim Walz.
Another false video appeared to show a person associated with the Democratic presidential ticket to be accepting a bribe from an entertainer. That video was also the work of a Russian influence campaign, US officials said Friday.
The statement also warned that the intelligence community expects to see more Russian disinformation released before and after Election Day.
Russia denied it was behind videos that falsely appeared to show voting fraud in the US election.
“We have noticed the statement of the US intelligence services accusing our country of disseminating fabricated videos about electoral violations in the United States. We view these allegations as baseless,” the Russian embassy in the US said in a statement on Telegram.
--With assistance from Henry Meyer.
(Updates with comment from Russian embassy in final paragraph.)
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