FBI links video falsely depicting voter fraud in Georgia to 'Russian influence actors'

WASHINGTON— A video purporting to depict voter fraud in Georgia is fake and the work of “Russian influencers,” U.S. intelligence officials said Friday, warning that foreign efforts to undermine confidence in the integrity of next week's election will continue long after the election voting could last.

The announcement that the video was fake represented an attempt by the FBI and other federal agencies to combat foreign disinformation four days before Tuesday's election by denouncing it rather than letting it spread unchecked for days. This follows a similar statement last week that also attributed a widely shared video to Russian actors that falsely depicted the destruction of mail-in ballots for Donald Trump in Pennsylvania.

The 20-second video posted to the social media platform on Thursday afternoon

He shows several alleged Georgia IDs with different names and addresses. An Associated Press analysis of the information on two of the IDs confirms they do not match registered voters in the Gwinnett or Fulton counties he cited.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Thursday evening that the video was “obviously fake” and likely the product of Russian trolls “looking to sow discord and chaos on the eve of the election.”

Intelligence officials confirmed that finding on Friday, saying the video was made by “Russian influencers” and was part of “Moscow's broader efforts to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of the U.S. election and stoke divisions among Americans.”

The intelligence community expects Russia to “create and publish additional media content designed to undermine confidence in the integrity of the election and divide Americans” in the days before the election and weeks and months afterward, it said joint statement from the FBI. the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The post that originally popularized the video was no longer available Friday morning, but copycat versions of the video were still being widely shared with false claims that it showed voter fraud.

According to Media co-director Darren Linvill, the video is similar in style and distribution method to other videos from Storm-1516, also known as CopyCop, a well-known Russian disinformation network that has created several fake videos this election, according to the Forensics Hub at Clemson University, who researched the group.

Also on Friday, authorities attributed a separately produced video to Russia that falsely accused “an individual associated with the Democratic presidential nomination of accepting bribes from a U.S. entertainer.” They didn't elaborate.