U.S. officers have decided Russia was behind a video that circulated on-line in latest days and that Georgia state election officers have labeled as disinformation.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger stated the video, which purports to point out Haitians claiming that they illegally voted for Kamala Harris, is faux and sure the work of a Russian troll farm.
Within the video posted to social media on Thursday, a person claims that he and others featured within the footage are from Haiti, arrived in america six months in the past, obtained U.S. citizenship inside that point, and are voting for Kamala Harris in a number of Georgia counties.
“Yesterday, we voted in Gwinnett County, and at the moment we’re voting in Fulton County,” the person says. “We’ve got all our paperwork, driver’s license. We invite all Haitians to come back to America and produce households.”
In an announcement Friday, the Workplace of the Director of Nationwide Intelligence, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company (CISA) stated the intelligence group “assesses that Russian affect actors manufactured a latest video that falsely depicted people claiming to be from Haiti and voting illegally in a number of counties in Georgia.” They famous that Raffensperger’s workplace had additionally decided the claims had been false.
“This Russian exercise is a part of Moscow’s broader effort to lift unfounded questions concerning the integrity of the US election and stoke divisions amongst Individuals,” the assertion stated.
Raffensperger stated his workplace was working with state and federal companions to find out the supply and urged X proprietor Elon Musk and the “management of different social media platforms” to take away the video.
Darren Linvill, an skilled on Russian disinformation and co-director of the Media Forensics Hub at Clemson College, instructed CBS Information the video has putting similarities to earlier movies launched by a Russian affect group often known as Storm-1516.
The video was posted to an nameless X account that has beforehand shared Russian disinformation, Linvill stated. Storm-1516 has been linked to different fabricated movies, together with footage that was falsely stated to point out election staff ripping up ballots in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
The group has additionally revealed movies with false claims about Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, in accordance with researchers and officers.
Robert Legare and
Nicole Sganga
contributed to this report.