The intelligence community warned late Monday that U.S. adversaries are intensifying disinformation efforts around Election Day by promoting false claims surrounding voting.
Russia, in particular, has been pushing false conspiracies that election officials are coordinating fraud, intelligence officials said.
“Russia is the most active threat. Influence actors linked to Russia in particular are manufacturing videos and creating fake articles to undermine the legitimacy of the election, instill fear in voters regarding the election process, and suggest Americans are using violence against each other due to political preferences,” the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) announced in a joint statement late Monday.
“In light of continued influence efforts by foreign adversaries and the increasing volume of inauthentic content online, CISA recommends voters seek out information from trusted, official sources, in particular, state and local election officials.”
Among the content created and disseminated by Russia is an article “falsely claiming that U.S. officials across swing states plan to orchestrate election fraud using a range of tactics, such as ballot stuffing and cyber attacks.”
The country also produced and amplified a video interview with someone purporting to be a whistleblower, pushing election fraud claims in Arizona, including efforts that “involved creating fake overseas ballots and changing voter rolls to favor Vice President Kamala Harris,” the release said.
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes said the claims promoted by the video are false, calling it “a stupid, ham-handed attempt.”
Russia has been accelerating its interference efforts in U.S. elections, refining its techniques over the last three election cycles.
The release warned that Iran is also likely undertaking influence efforts in the final hours leading up to the election.
“Iranian influence actors may also seek to create fake media content intended to suppress voting or stoke violence, as they have done in past election cycles,” the intelligence agencies warned.
The intelligence agencies encouraged voters to seek information about voting practices from reputable sources.
“In light of continued influence efforts by foreign adversaries and the increasing volume of inauthentic content online, CISA recommends voters seek out information from trusted, official sources, in particular, state and local election officials.”
Still, in a Tuesday morning release the FBI warned of accounts purporting to be the agency that were likewise spreading false claims about voting.
“The FBI was made aware of two instances of its name and insignia being misused in promoting false narratives surrounding the election. The first is a fabricated newsclip purporting to be a terrorist warning issued by the FBI. The fabricated newsclip reports falsely that the FBI purportedly stated that Americans should ‘vote remotely’ due to a high terror threat at polling stations. This video is not authentic and does not accurately represent the current threat posture or polling location safety,” the agency said in a statement.
“Additionally, a fabricated video containing a fabricated FBI press release alleges that the management of five prisons in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona rigged inmate voting and colluded with a political party. This video is also not authentic, and its contents are false.“
The agency later highlighted additional instances of accounts purporting to be the FBI. In one instance an account promotes false warnings for the media against reporting about violence at polling places.
It also cited two fake videos circulating online.
In one, a fake account “suggest[s] schools suspend educational activities through November 11, claiming that ‘the risk of school shooting and riots has increased significantly’ because of the U.S. election.”
In another, a fabricated video claims the FBI received “9,000 complaints about malfunctioning voting machines.”
“This video is also not authentic, is not from the FBI, and its contents are false,” the FBI stated.
Updated at 8:27 p.m. EST