Russian agents behind fake video of ballot destruction in Pennsylvania, FBI say

A fake video of Pennsylvania ballots for Donald Trump be destroyed, was created and distributed by Russia, U.S. officials concluded Friday.

The video, which circulated on right-wing social media this week, was quickly made available debunked Thursday by local election officials, but that didn’t stop the post from generating hundreds of thousands of views, per NPR.

“This video is fake,” Bucks County election officials said shared. “The envelope and materials depicted in this video are clearly not authentic materials belonging to or distributed by the Bucks County Board of Elections.”

US intelligence confirmed that the videos were produced by Russian actors seeking to influence the election.

“Russian actors manufactured and amplified a recent video that falsely depicted an individual tearing up ballots in Pennsylvania,” a joint statement said. statement from the FBI, Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and CISA. “This Russian activity is part of Moscow’s broader effort to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of the U.S. election and to stoke division among Americans.”

The video comes weeks after federal prosecutors unraveled a massive Russian propaganda operation payouts to American conservative content creatorswith the Kremlin donating at least $10 million to pro-Trump Tenet Media and presenters like Tim Pool and Dave Rubin.

Experts warn about this fabricated or deepfake videos are becoming increasingly common in elections. In July, X owner Elon Musk arrived shared an AI-edited video an AI-edited video of Vice President Kamala Harris making misogynistic and racist comments.