Russia-linked bots have been promoting fake videos online to discredit the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, raising further concerns about foreign meddling in the 2024 presidential election.
The videos are designed to “sow discord and spread misinformation” about the nominee, according to Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center, which warned that the U.S. public must “remain vigilant” to the evolving cyber threats posed by Iran, Russia and China ahead of November’s vote.
On Tuesday, a video circulated on X which claimed to reveal Harris’s “close ties” to Pfizer and the pharmaceutical industry.
A still from the fake video about Kamala Harris’s “ties to American pharmaceutical companies.” The CNN watermark can be seen in the video, which claims to be based on an ongoing Bellingcat investigation. Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins has declared the video a fake.
X
The video attempted to portray itself as from CNN using the network’s watermark, and claims to be about an investigation by Netherlands-based investigative journalism organization Bellingcat.
Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins shared the video on Tuesday, declaring it a fake that was “boosted by a network of bots.”
The video emerged a day after Microsoft’s latest report on “election interference efforts,” which outlined various attempts by Russian actors to spread misinformation on X, Telegram and fake websites to “exploit perceived vulnerabilities” in both Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz.
Newsweek has contacted the Russian Foreign Ministry for comment on Microsoft’s report.
Democratic presidential nominee, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris answers questions during a moderated conversation with members of the National Association of Black Journalists hosted by WHYY September 17, 2024 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center claims Russian actors are “disseminating fabricated videos” online in an effort to discredit the candidate.
Win McNamee/Getty Images
In late August and early September, Microsoft said it observed campaigns by previously identified two Russian groups using fraudulent videos designed to “discredit Harris and stoke controversy around her campaign.”
One of these groups, identified as prolific Kremlin-aligned actor Storm-1516, disseminated an video depicting “an attack by alleged Harris supporters on what the video’s amplifiers claim is a Trump rally attendee.”
Shayan Sardarizadeh, a journalist with BBC Verify, pointed out the discrepancies in the video in a series of posts on X, and claimed that it was “likely part of a pro-Kremlin disinformation operation” run by Florida deputy sheriff-turned Russian propagandist John Mark Dougan.
The main piece of evidence for the story is this video of Alicia Brown, now 26, explaining how she’s been left paralyzed by the crash caused by Harris.
You only need to watch a few seconds of it to realise it’s a deepfake. Again, this is a hallmark of Dougan’s operation. pic.twitter.com/n0Vb4RqNra
— Shayan Sardarizadeh (@Shayan86) September 4, 2024
The video, which Microsoft said garnered millions of views, was intended to “inflame political divides by stirring racial and political tensions.”
The second video, distributed by a fake website for the non-existent San Francisco news agency KBSF-TV, showed an on-screen actress who claimed to have been paralyzed by the vice president in a 2011 hit-and-run.
Storm-1679, which Microsoft describes as “newer group reportedly aligned with the Kremlin,”
“As we inch closer to the election, we should expect Russian actors to continue to use cyber proxies and hacktivist groups to amplify their messages through media websites and social channels geared to spread divisive political content, staged videos, and AI-enhanced propaganda,” Microsoft said.
The report compounds previous U.S. concerns over foreign election meddling, which have already played a prominent role in this year’s presidential race.
In August, Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center published a report outlining the “foreign malign influence” exerted by China, Russia, and Iran leading up to the November vote.
Microsoft again emphasized that these “cyber-influence operations” were “targeted at US audiences and potentially intended to influence the 2024 US presidential election.”
In early September, the U.S. Department of Justice charged two Russian employees of state news agency RT with conspiring to commit money laundering and breaching the Foreign Agents Registration Act.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said: “The Justice Department has indicted two employees of RT, a Russian state-controlled media outlet, for orchestrating a $10 million scheme to produce and disseminate content to U.S. audiences containing concealed Russian government messaging.”
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