Russian election interference efforts have shifted to spreading “outlandish fake conspiracy theories” about the Harris-Walz campaign, the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC) warns.
Since late August, Russian threat actors have been disseminating fabricated videos designed to sow discord and spread disinformation about the new Democratic nominee Vice President Harris. Some of them have millions of views.
One deepfake claims that Harris paralyzed a girl in a hit-and-run accident that happened in 2011. The fabrication was uploaded to a fake website masquerading as a local San Francisco media outlet. The website was created a few days beforehand.
Another inauthentic video depicts an attack on a Trump rally attendee by alleged Harris supporters, which never happened. The goal was to inflame political divides by stirring racial and political tensions.
Both clips received millions of views. Microsoft's new report attributes them to a Kremlin-aligned troll farm labeled Storm-1516.
Another threat actor, Storm-1679, better known as Doppelganger, posted two fake videos. One of them, with more than 100,000 views on X, leveraged a divisive social issue regarding sex change operations and depicted a fake New York City billboard advancing false claims about Harris’ policies.
This marks a pivot from the previous activities of these adversaries. During summer, Doppelganger was busy spreading lies about the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, while Storm-1516 was still denigrating President Joe Biden.
“In the past two months, Microsoft has observed a notable shift in Russian influence operations tactics reflecting the changing US political environment. Specifically, we have observed Russia pivot towards targeting the Harris-Walz campaign,” the report reads.
Cybernews already reported a sharp increase in the number of blocked YouTube channels linked to Russian influence operations.
As in the two previous campaigns, MTAC observes a synchronized shift by all Russian influence actors to focus on undermining the Democratic candidate in the final 90 days before the election.
One of the Russia-affiliated influence actors, Volga Flood (Storm-1841, aka Rybar), operates covert social media channels targeting US audiences to spread lies. It is among the leading Russian actors leveraging AI to scale its operations beyond the capabilities of its teams.
Simultaneously, MTAC anticipates Iranian threat actors joining the malicious activity of inciting confusion, fear, or intimidation among voters in swing states.
“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,” MTAC said.
Russia and Iran are not the only nation-states trying to influence the election. A Chinese-linked actor, Storm-1852, was observed producing short-form video content that criticizes the Biden administration and Harris campaign, masquerading as conservative US voters voting for Trump. A handful of accounts also create anti-Trump content and use political slogans associated with American progressive politics.
This threat actor doesn’t appear interested in supporting a particular candidate. Rather, its likely intent is to seed doubt and confusion among American voters.
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