Who is behind the fake video of alleged voter fraud in Georgia?

The United States is once again the target of disinformation campaigns to interfere in its elections, a scourge affecting countries around the world. The tactics and methods are becoming more sophisticated and spread easily through social media.

Even though they are usually the product of foreign actors, they are unfortunately amplified by ‘useful idiots’ and even more unfortunately by malicious actors who think it will help their cause. However, authorities are always vigilant to identify false information and fake videos, inform the public about them and have them removed if possible.

The most recent case identified is a fake video of a supposedly Haitian man saying he voted multiple times using multiple Georgia IDs.

Who is behind the fake video of alleged voter fraud in Georgia?

In a joint statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) This latest example of election interference was blamed on Russian troll farms.

“The (intelligence community) is assessing that Russian influence actors created a recent video falsely portraying individuals claiming to be from Haiti voting illegally in multiple counties in Georgia” reads the statement. “This assessment is based on information available to the IC and previous activities of other Russian influence actors, including videos and other disinformation activities. Georgia’s foreign minister has already refuted the video’s claims as false.”

While Georgian Foreign Minister Brad Raffensperger asked Elon Musk and the leadership of other social media platforms to remove the video in question from their sites, he himself posted it on his official X account. However, he explained that “This is clearly fake, and probably a production of Russian troll farms. As Americans, we cannot allow our enemies to use lies to divide us and undermine faith in our institutions – or in each other.”

Authorities warn of more content from Russian troll farms

That wasn’t the only example of fake videos that the intelligence community discovered Russian influence actors were spreading “part of Moscow’s broader effort to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of the US elections and stoke division among Americans.”

Another fabricated video falsely accuses “an individual associated with the Democratic presidential ticket for taking bribes from an American entertainer.”

It is expected that Russian troll farms will continue to do this “Creating and releasing additional media content that aims to undermine confidence in the integrity of the elections and divide Americans.”

This will be not only in the remaining days until Election Day on November 5, but also in the weeks and months after ballots are cast and counted. Election fraud is extremely rare in the United States and is thoroughly prosecuted as a crime.