US officials say election misinformation is linked to Russia

On November 2, 2024By Karl

By ERIC TUCKER and ALI SWENSON

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Video allegedly depicting voter fraud in Georgia That claim is bogus and the work of “Russian influence actors” is determined to undermine faith in the integrity of next week’s presidential election, U.S. intelligence officials said Friday.

The announcement that the video was fake, four days before Tuesday’s election, represented an effort by the FBI and other federal agencies to combat foreign disinformation by publicizing it rather than allowing it to spread for days unchecked. A similar statement was made last week A widely circulated video was attributed to Russian players inaccurate portrayal of mail-in ballots Donald Trump It is being destroyed in Pennsylvania.

The 20-second video in question, which began circulating on social media platform

It shows several so-called Georgia IDs with different names and addresses, and an Associated Press analysis of information on two of the IDs confirms that those IDs do not match registered voters in Gwinnett or Fulton counties, the two counties he mentioned.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a statement Thursday night that the video was “obviously fake” and likely “the product of Russian trolls trying to sow discord and chaos on the eve of the election.”

Intelligence officials echoed that finding on Friday, saying the video was produced by “Russian-influenced actors” and was “part of Moscow’s broader effort to raise unsubstantiated questions about the integrity of U.S. elections and fuel divisions among Americans.”

The intelligence community expects Russia to “create and publish additional media content aimed at undermining confidence in the integrity of the election and dividing Americans” in the days before the election and in the weeks and months after the election, the FBI said in a joint statement. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and Directorate of National Intelligence.

The post that initially popularized the video was no longer available by Friday morning, but duplicate versions of the video were still being widely shared with false claims that it showed election fraud.

The video is similar in style and method of dissemination to other videos created by Storm-1516, also known as CopyCop, a known Russian disinformation network. I created some fake videos This election is a culmination of that choice, according to Darren Linvill, co-director of Clemson University’s Center for Media Forensics, which researched the group.

First Publication Date: November 1, 2024 13:45 EDT