Hours before millions of Americans head to the polls on Tuesday, the U.S. intelligence community said Russia is spreading fake news stories to create the perception that officials in key swing states are preparing to commit various acts of election fraud.
“Influence actors linked to Russia in particular are manufacturing videos and creating fake articles to undermine the legitimacy of the election, instill fear in voters regarding the election process, and suggest Americans are using violence against each other due to political preferences, judging from information available to the IC,” says a joint statement released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI, and DHS’ Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency. “We anticipate Russian actors will release additional manufactured content with these themes through election day and in the days and weeks after polls close.”
The fake article, posted and amplified by Russian influence operators, claims that U.S. officials across swing states are planning to stuff ballots, conduct cyber attacks against election infrastructure, and use a “range of tactics” to “undermine public confidence in the integrity of U.S. elections and stoke divisions among Americans,” the statement said.
The Russian actors aim, in part, to convince the American public that election-related violence is spreading and to frighten voters, it said.
In Arizona, Russian actors created and spread a fake news article depicting an interview claiming that state officials created fake ballots and changed voter rolls in order to favor Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. “The Arizona Secretary of State has already refuted the video’s claim as false,” the statement said.
“We anticipate Russian actors will release additional manufactured content with these themes through election day and in the days and weeks after polls close,” it said.
Iran also continues to be a “foreign influence threat” to U.S. elections, the statement said: “As noted in a prior update, we have assessed that Iran has conducted malicious cyber activities to compromise former President Trump’s campaign. Iranian influence actors may also seek to create fake media content intended to suppress voting or stoke violence, as they have done in past election cycles.”
The announcement came just hours after CISA Director Jen Easterly told reporters that “our election infrastructure has never been more secure and that the election community has never been better prepared to deliver safe, secure, free, and fair elections.”
