Fake videos from Russian propagandists aim to increase tensions ahead of Election Day

In a video posted on X on Thursday, a man claiming to be a Haitian immigrant says he has already voted for Vice President Harris in Gwinnett County, Georgia, and plans to vote again in neighboring Fulton County. Sitting in a van next to another supposed Haitian immigrant, he says they arrived in the US six months ago and are already American citizens.

State and federal officials say the video was likely created by Russian propagandists trying to undermine confidence in the election.

“This is obviously fake and part of a disinformation effort. These are likely the products of Russian troll farms,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Thursday. Federal officials weighed in Friday, saying they also believe the video was “fabricated” by Russian influencers.

“These Russian activities are part of a broader effort by Moscow to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of U.S. elections and fuel division among Americans,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said in a joint statement. statement.

The video is the latest hoax that researchers say matches the results of a Russian operation known as Storm 1516, which they say pumps out a steady stream of fake material in the final days of voting. The organization is known for producing staged videos that it launders through online influencers and fake news outlets. Clemson University has linked him to a notorious Russian “troll factory” targeting the 2016 presidential election.

In just the past two weeks, researchers from Clemson and Microsoft have linked Storm 1516 to a fake video purporting to show ballots marked for former President Donald Trump being destroyed in Pennsylvania and unsubstantiated allegations against Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz. Federal officials also attributed the videos to Russia.

“I was immediately suspicious of this (Georgia) video as soon as I saw the style and production values,” said Darren Linville, co-director of Clemson University’s Center for Media Forensics, which first exposed Operation Storm 1516 last year.

The theme also fits Russia’s tactics of exacerbating existing divisions among American voters, he said.

“It ties into existing stories that are told about the Haitian community, about immigrants being used to vote,” Linville said. “The Russians understand these divisions and use them to spread their ideas.”

The account Linville said was the first to share the video on X has since deleted it. In a direct message exchange with NPR, the person running the account wrote, “I deleted it because I wasn’t sure it was 100% accurate and didn’t want to be held responsible for misinformation.”

It’s unclear exactly how the fake Georgia video ended up on this X account. The NPR account said it had seen the video on Telegram, but did not respond to additional questions.

The video continues to circulate widely on social media, most notably on X, prompting Raffensperger to publicly call on X owner Elon Musk and leaders of other platforms to remove it.

“X has discovered that these posts violate our Civic Integrity Policy and we are taking action against these posts,” a spokesperson for X said. Another X account that posted a video about Georgia, as well as other content related to Storm 1516, was suspended.

Facebook is putting labels on the video informing users that U.S. intelligence officials have said it was produced by Russian agents of influence.

Successor to the IRA

In 2016, Russian operatives working for the Internet Research Agency in St. Petersburg posed as Americans and posed as news sources on social media to spread false and misleading stories to U.S. voters.

The IRA was created by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian oligarch and former confidant of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who died in 2023. In a recent report, Clemson identified ties between Storm 1516 and another group founded by Prigozhin in 2021 called the Russian Foundation. to fight injustice.

“We believe this is IRA 2.0. It’s the same people, the same network, the same old property,” Linville said.

Today Linville says Storm 1516 improved some of the IRA’s techniques. His videos sometimes appear on websites disguised as news outlets, such as a site pretending to be a defunct San Francisco television station that shared a staged video accusing Harris of injuring someone during a getaway in 2011. (There is no evidence that the incident occurred.)

Some of the sites distributing the operation’s content are part of a network of websites masquerading as local US news outlets that disinformation tracking company NewsGuard and New York Times They are reportedly run by John Mark Dugan, a former Florida sheriff’s deputy who now lives in Moscow. Dugan denies working for the Russian government. However, European intelligence has obtained documents showing that he is directly collaborating with Russian military intelligence, according to the agency. Washington Post.

Linville says Storm-1516 also now relies on real people rather than bots or fake accounts to spread its messages and videos.

It reflects both a change in Russian tactics and an environment in which many Americans are more receptive to allegations of malfeasance amid Trump’s ongoing attacks on election integrity, he said.

“They put effort into building a network. They made an effort to connect with real people,” Linville said. “But it’s also true that people are now ready for it. You can’t separate these things. The Russians have changed their tactics to match the changes in our reality.”

As Election Day approaches, government officials are warning Americans to be wary of new Russian efforts to undermine confidence in the election.

“We are very concerned about how our foreign adversaries will specifically attack after Election Day, a time when election officials across the country are taking on the incredibly important job of certifying official results,” a senior CISA official told reporters. . He spoke on condition of anonymity on Friday.

Linville says he’s prepared for a new scam video every day. “I’m sure they put them in line,” he said.

NPR’s Miles Parks contributed reporting.

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