A Russian actor was behind a false viral video showing Donald Trump’s mail-in ballots being destroyed in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, amid growing alarm over foreign influence operations aimed at the upcoming election. US officials announced this on Friday.
The video, which has garnered millions of views on platforms such as Elon Musk’s X, shows a man sorting mail-in ballots from Bucks County and tearing up the former president’s ballot. This is said to be a video of the child being thrown away.
On Thursday, the Bucks County Board of Elections declared the video a “fake” and said the envelopes and other materials depicted in the footage were “obviously inauthentic materials” they owned or distributed. He said that there is.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), FBI, and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said in a joint statement Friday that the video is part of a Russian disinformation campaign.
“Russian actors fabricated and amplified a recent video falsely depicting an individual tearing up a ballot in Pennsylvania,” the statement said.
It added: “This Russian activity is part of Russia’s broader efforts to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of U.S. elections and to stoke divisions among Americans.”
The statement said Russia is expected to create and publish more such content with the purpose of “undermining confidence” in the integrity of the Nov. 5 election.
The video surfaced as U.S. officials prepare for a surge in disinformation in the final stages of a close election between Republican candidate Trump and Democratic candidate Kamala Harris.
The video was also debunked by AFP fact-checkers and linked to a Kremlin-aligned disinformation network known as Storm-1516, according to researchers including Darren Linville, co-director of the Clemson University Media Forensics Hub. It is said that he was
Linville, who has closely studied the network, said the X account that distributed the video (formerly known as Twitter) has regularly amplified other narratives from the network.
Disinformation researchers say Storm-1516 has previously created fake videos to discredit the campaigns of Harris and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz.
In September, the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center announced that Russian operatives were ramping up their disinformation campaign to smear the Harris campaign by distributing conspiratorial videos.
In addition to Russia, ODNI warned in a memo earlier this week that Iran and China are also fueling “divisive narratives that divide Americans and undermine American trust in our democratic institutions.”
“Foreign influence will increase in the lead-up to Election Day, particularly through social media posts, some of which are likely to be generated or enhanced by AI,” the report said.
Furthermore, “these actors likely recognize that undermining confidence in elections will weaken the legitimacy of our democracy, thereby reducing the ability of the United States to effectively pursue policies that are contrary to its interests.” I would have,” he added.
