Pierluigi Paganini November 04, 2024

U.S. intel says Russia made a fake video claiming Haitians voted illegally in Georgia, aiming to spread election disinformation.

U.S. intel reports Russia created a fake viral video falsely claiming Haitians illegally voted multiple times in Georgia, aiming to spread election disinformation.

U.S. intelligence agencies’ claims are based on existing intel and past Russian disinformation actions.

Georgia’s secretary of state asked social media platforms, including X, to stop disinformation activities carried out by foreign nation-state actors, specifically Russia through its disinformation network. 

The now-removed fake video began circulating on Thursday afternoon on X. 

The RecordMedia, reported that disinformation experts immediately debunked the video and linked the content to Russia-linked APT group Storm-1516.

In late August and September, Microsoft spotted two Russia-linked threat actors, tracked as Storm-1516 and Storm-1679, spreading videos designed to discredit Harris and stoke controversy around her campaign.

“Storm-1516, identified by news reports as a Kremlin-aligned troll farm, produced and disseminated two inauthentic videos, each generating millions of views. One video depicted an attack by alleged Harris supporters on a supposed Trump rally attendee, while another used an on-screen actor to fabricate false claims about Harris’s involvement in a hit-and-run accident.” reported Microsoft in September. “This second video was laundered through a website masquerading as a local San Francisco media outlet — which was only created days beforehand. “

Russia-linked threat actors also created another fake video accusing a Democratic presidential associate of accepting a bribe from a U.S. entertainer, intelligence officials report.

In a post on X on Saturday, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said the two videos were spreading rumours about ballot fraud and about Doug Emhoff, the husband of Democrat candidate Vice-President Kamala Harris. The fake videos, which purport to be from the FBI and include the bureau’s logo, did not receive a large amount of views from real people on X. “These videos are not authentic, are not from the FBI, and the content they depict is false,” the FBI statement said.

The FBI has also been called to investigate a separate episode with fake video purporting to show ballots being destroyed in Pennsylvania. The video, which was posted on X, formerly Twitter, appears to show an individual checking mail-in ballots and ripping up votes for Donald Trump while keeping votes for Kamala Harris. Those sharing the video claim that it shows an employee at a Bucks County, Pennsylvania, polling place. The clip has received at least 155,000 views in around 12 hours on X. Many of the commenters have noted that it does not look realistic, although others appeared to believe it depicted real vote tampering. Prior to that, federal cybersecurity and intelligence officials said that a viral video purporting to show Haitian immigrants engaging in voter fraud was made by Russian interference groups that are trying to undermine confidence in U.S. elections. The video, which began circulating on social media this week, shows two men who claim they arrived to the U.S. from Haiti six months ago. They claim to have American citizenship and that they are voting for Vice President Kamala Harris in multiple Georgia counties, showing cards that appear to look like drivers’ licenses. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Director Jen Easterly told MSNBC on Friday that the video was “Russian-produced and specifically designed to go viral and undermine American confidence in the security and the integrity of our election.” The experts warn about misinformation activity, “fake news” and influence campaigns.

At the end of October, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released the following statement:

“The IC assesses that Russian actors manufactured and amplified a recent video that falsely depicted an individual ripping up ballots in Pennsylvania, judging from information available to the IC and prior activities of other Russian influence actors, including videos and other disinformation activities. Local election officials have already debunked the video’s content. 

This Russian activity is part of Moscow’s broader effort to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of the US election and stoke divisions among Americans, as detailed in prior ODNI election updates. In the lead up to election day and in the weeks and months after, the IC expects Russia to create and release additional media content that seeks to undermine trust in the integrity of the election and divide Americans.”

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, US Election 2024)