US officials say Russia was behind the second fake video that spread false claims of election fraud

Russia was behind a video that falsely claimed Haitian immigrants were voting illegally in Georgia using fake IDs in an attempt to undermine Americans' confidence in the 2024 election results, U.S. intelligence and cybersecurity officials said Friday.

Jen Easterly, director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), told MSNBC that a forensic analysis clearly showed that Russia was behind the video, the second in a week from Moscow that has sparked division in the country ahead of next week's election United States should sow.

“We can say with certainty that it was produced in Russia and is specifically designed to go viral and undermine American confidence in the security and integrity of our elections,” Easterly said when asked about the video.

It was the second sophisticated Russian disinformation in a week to gain traction online, falsely claiming election fraud in a key swing state. Easterly said she expects more attempts by Russia and foreign adversaries to spread false information before and after Election Day.

“This is about spreading disinformation aimed at undermining trust in our elections and sowing partisan discord, and we cannot allow our foreign adversaries to have a voice in our democracy,” Easterly said.

The first video falsely claimed to show a person tearing up completed ballots in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. U.S. intelligence officials said the video was made in Russia and was intended to shake public trust in the democratic process.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, FBI and CISA said in a statement Friday that Russian influence agents “made up” the fake Georgia video and that it was similar to previous Moscow disinformation.

In addition, Russian cyber operators produced a video that falsely accused “an individual associated with the Democratic presidential nomination of accepting bribes from a U.S. entertainer,” authorities said in a joint statement , without going into more detail.

Emerson Brooking, who studies disinformation at the Atlantic Council think tank's Digital Forensic Research Lab, said the recent videos show how Russia is now creating its own false material, which, unlike the last presidential election, gained traction online.

“This is really a sea change from 2020, when we see these foreign networks amplifying domestic disinformation and disinformation, but not producing their own,” Brooking said.

The original material quickly attracted a large audience on X.

“Americans are much more likely to share content produced or directed by Russians than they were in 2020,” he added.

The two recent videos falsely claiming voter fraud and ballot destruction involved non-white actors and that was no coincidence, Brooking said.

“There is an underlying racial hostility that these attempts also attempt to activate,” he said.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger suggested Thursday that the false video about voter fraud in his state was likely the work of a foreign adversary. He called on X's owner, Elon Musk, to remove the video from the social media platform.

After being caught flat-footed by Russian information warfare in the 2016 election, federal police and intelligence officials say they are trying to move more quickly this time to detect and disrupt disinformation operations abroad.

Federal authorities countered foreign disinformation by “flooding the zone with accurate information,” CISA’s Easterly said in her interview on MSNBC.

“We have released information about how our foreign adversaries are using targeted tactics to undermine the integrity of our elections,” she said.

“Americans are exposed to a barrage of disinformation,” Easterly said. “Therefore, it is no surprise that there are some who question the integrity of our electoral processes,” referring to the large amount of false election-related information circulating on social media.

Easterly also said a repeat of Russian propaganda and disinformation by prominent Americans aimed at undermining public trust in the electoral process could cause serious damage to the country's democracy.

“It is incredibly irresponsible that anyone with power or influence, regardless of party or politics, would spread Russian propaganda aimed at undermining American confidence in the security of our elections,” she said. “It is destructive to our democracy.”