A fake video showing voter fraud in Georgia was created by Russian disinformation agents, U.S. intelligence officers said this week.
On Friday, U.S. intelligence officials said that "Russian influence actors" created the video which falsely depicts voter fraud as an attempt to undermine confidence in the integrity of next week's presidential election.
The announcement that the video was fake marked a proactive effort by the FBI and other federal agencies—just four days ahead of Tuesday's election—to counter foreign disinformation by addressing it directly rather than allowing it to circulate unchecked.
This follows a similar statement last week attributing another widely shared video, which falsely showed mail-in ballots for former President Donald Trump being destroyed in Pennsylvania, to Russian actors.
What Did the Video Show
The 20-second video, which began circulating on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday afternoon, shows a man identifying himself as a Haitian immigrant claiming he plans to vote multiple times in two Georgia counties for Vice President Kamala Harris.
In the clip, the man displays several purported Georgia IDs with various names and addresses. A review by The Associated Press of two of the IDs confirmed that the information does not match any registered voters in Gwinnett or Fulton counties, the two counties mentioned in the clip.
Russian Disinformation
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, issued a statement on Thursday evening in which he said of the video: "This is false and is an example of targeted disinformation we've seen in this and other elections. It is likely foreign interference attempting to sow discord and chaos on the eve of the 2024 Presidential election."
"We are working to combat this and identify the origin of it with our state and federal partners. CISA [Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency] is currently investigating. In the meantime, we ask [X owner] Elon Musk and the leadership of other social media platforms to take this down. This is obviously fake and part of a disinformation effort. Likely it is a production of Russian troll farms," Raffensperger said. "As Americans we can't let our enemies use lies to divide us and undermine our faith in our institutions—or each other."
In a joint statement, the FBI, CISA and Office of the Director of National Intelligence warned that Russia is expected to "create and release additional media content that seeks to undermine trust in the integrity of the election and divide Americans" in the days leading up to the election, as well as in the weeks and months afterward.
By Friday morning, the original post that first circulated the video had been removed, but duplicate versions continued to spread widely.
This article includes reporting from The Associated Press.
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Matthew Impelli
Matthew Impelli is a Newsweek staff writer based in New York. His focus is reporting social issues and crime. In ...
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