2 weeks ago

US security agencies warn of Russian election disinformation blitz in swing states

Russia-linked disinformation operations have falsely claimed officials in battleground states plan to fraudulently sway the outcome of the US presidential election, authorities said a few hours ahead of the opening of polling booths in the 5 November vote.

“Russia is the most active threat,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said on Monday.

“These efforts risk inciting violence, including against election officials,” they added, noting the efforts are expected to intensify through election day and in the following weeks.

The statement also noted that Iran remained a “significant foreign influence threat to US elections.”

It was the latest in a series of warnings from the ODNI about foreign actors – notably Russia and Iran – allegedly spreading disinformation or hacking the campaigns during this election.

The latest ODNI statement cited the example of a recent video that falsely depicted an interview with a person claiming election fraud in Arizona involving fake overseas ballots and changing of voter rolls to favour Kamala Harris.

The Arizona secretary of state, Adrian Fontes, called the video and its claims “completely false, fake and fraudulent”.

A spokesperson for the Russian embassy did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

US officials warned in late October that Russia-linked operations were behind a viral video falsely showing mail-in ballots for Trump being destroyed in Bucks county in the swing state of Pennsylvania. The county’s board of elections said the video was “fake” and the envelope and other materials depicted in the footage were “clearly not authentic materials”.

In September, Microsoft’s threat analysis centre said Russian operatives were ramping up disinformation operations to malign Harris’s campaign by disseminating conspiracy-laden videos.

Authorities also said they expected Iranian-linked operations to try to stoke violence by spreading false content. Tehran and Moscow have both denied such allegations in the past.

Success in swing states is key to winning the White House for rivals Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, and those states have previously been the focus of unsupported accusations of election fraud.

With Agence France-Presse and Associated Press

Read more of the Guardian’s 2024 US election coverage: