Officials warn against fake US election videos, but see little disruption
The FBI on Tuesday warned Americans about two new fake videos falsely citing terror threats and voter fraud, the latest in a string of disinformation that officials expect will intensify as voters head to the polls on Election Day.
One fabricated video purporting to be from the federal law enforcement agency falsely cited a high terror threat and urged Americans to “vote remotely,” while another video includes a fake press release alleging to be from the agency and claiming rigged voting among inmates in five prisons.
Both are “not authentic,” the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement, “Attempts to deceive the public with false content about FBI threat assessments and activities aim to undermine our democratic process and erode trust in the electoral system.”
Federal, state and local officials have been warning Americans about attempts to undermine the election with wrong information and have urged US voters to seek out credible information from reliable sources.
As of 11am US Eastern Time (1400 GMT), there was little evidence of any genuine or widespread disruption.
Cait Conley, a senior Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency official, told a media briefing on Tuesday that CISA was not currently tracking any national incidents which were impacting the security of US election infrastructure, although she warned that foreign actors may try to make it appear otherwise.
“As we’ve said repeatedly, we may see more of this activity today and in the coming weeks, with a particular focus on influence narratives impacting swing states,” Conley said.
On Monday, US intelligence agencies said they expected overseas influence operations to “intensify through election day and in the coming weeks,” particularly in the seven battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Still, US cybersecurity agency director Jen Easterly has said her department has not seen evidence of any activity that could directly impact the outcome of Tuesday’s election.
US intelligence agencies last week blamed Russia for a false video purporting to show a Haitian immigrant claiming to have voted multiple times in the US state of Georgia. Over the weekend, the FBI warned about several other fake videos.
Russia routinely denies interfering in American politics.