A video showing ballots being torn up in Pennsylvania is fake, officials say

Video circulating on social media showing ballots being destroyed is fake

Officials in Bucks County have confirmed that the FBI is involved in an investigation into a video circulating on social media showing ballot destruction is not real.

A video circulating online this week allegedly shows an election worker in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, ripping up ballots for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. But the video turned out to be fake.

The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office and local police said the video was “clearly not authentic” and was “fabricated in an attempt to undermine the situation.” confidence in the coming electionsOfficials said the FBI is investigating. FOX 29 reports.

The fake images were repeatedly shared on X, including by an account linked to Q Anon with more than 120,000 followers. The message has now been deleted.

The envelopes in the video don’t match the official ballot envelopes in Pennsylvania, but that didn’t stop people from believing they were real.

It’s not the first fake video to make the rounds this election season: There was a fake video claiming abuse Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walzthat likely originated in Russia, officials said. And after Helene in September, there were numerous untruths about weather control and withholding money in Republican-dominated areas.

According to the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue: Russian state media and networks of social media accounts and websites have exploited legitimate concerns about hurricane recovery efforts in an effort to portray American leaders as corrupt and incompetent.

In some cases, fake images created by artificial intelligence circulated, including a photo of devastating flooding at Disney World that never happened.

Russian ‘fake news’ website targets Kamala Harris

The new effort, distributing fake videos discrediting Harris and her campaign, is the latest foreign interference in Russia in recent weeks. Darren Linvill, professor and co-director of the Watt Family Innovation Center Media Forensics Hub at Clemson University, joined LiveNOW from FOX’s Josh Breslow to discuss the latest developments.

These lies have infected the political debate this fall — and they’re a sobering reminder of how quickly things can spread.

Things become even more challenging when Trump, the Republican Party nominee, also spreads lies about disaster relief, including that federal funding is being diverted for use against people in the country illegally.

“It’s just bizarre. They have to stop this. They are so damn un-American in the way they talk about this stuff,” President Joe Biden said earlier this month when asked whether Trump was spreading untruths.

With the election less than two weeks away, the news media is feeling the weight of responsibility, especially as they have been swept up in the widespread spread of misinformation.

There are several plans to combat disinformation in newsrooms, which will follow the culmination of a hard-fought campaign on November 5.

Election night coverage has changed significantly from the days when getting the right count and the right analysis was the primary concern. Tim Richardson, journalism and disinformation program director at PEN America, hopes the news media is prepared for what’s to come.

“I feel like we are in uncharted territory and I don’t know what will happen,” he said. “Hopefully the journalists are ready. I think so.”