Stay informed with FP’s news and analysis as the United States votes.
Since the 2016 U.S. presidential election thrust Russian disinformation and influence campaigns into the public consciousness, the scale of the online threat from U.S. adversaries, such as Russia and Iran, has significantly increased. Law enforcement and intelligence agencies are taking no chances, releasing information almost in real time that calls out fake social media posts and videos from those adversaries.
The latest warning, in a now-customary joint statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, came on Monday night—less than 24 hours before polls close on Tuesday. According to the three agencies, Russian threat actors created and spread an article falsely claiming that U.S. officials would perpetrate election fraud through cyber attacks and ballot stuffing in swing states, as well as a video containing a fake interview claiming election fraud in the battleground state of Arizona through the changing of voter rolls to favor U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris.
This is the fifth such warning that the agencies have issued in the last three months, including evidence that Iran has targeted the campaign of former U.S. President Donald Trump. According to the recent statement, the intelligence community “expects these activities will intensify through Election Day and in the coming weeks, and that foreign influence narratives will focus on swing states.”
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