US officials have urged voters to seek out information about the Presidential election from trusted, official sources amid ramped up foreign influence efforts.
The joint advisory from the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI)and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), warned that foreign adversaries, particularly Russia, will intensify online content designed to undermine the legitimacy of the election on polling day and the coming weeks.
This includes manufacturing videos and creating fake articles on social media to create doubt about the election process and sow division among Americans.
These efforts will focus on swing states as polling day on November 5 is reached, and the agencies said such efforts risk inciting violence, including against election officials.
On November 1, US government agencies accused Russian actors of being behind a faked video purporting to show Haitian’s illegally voting in multiple counties in the state of Georgia.
In the following days, the Intelligence Community (IC) has assessed that Russia has been conducting additional influence operations. In one case, Russian influence actors posted and amplified an article falsely claiming that US officials across swing states plan to orchestrate election fraud using a range of tactics, such as ballot stuffing and cyber-attacks.
Russian actors also manufactured and amplified a recent video that falsely depicted an interview with an individual claiming election fraud in Arizona, which involved creating fake overseas ballots and changing voter rolls to favor Vice President Kamala Harris. The claim in this video has been refuted as false by the Arizona Secretary of State.
In addition, the advisory identified Iran as a significant foreign influence threat to the US election, and the agencies expect Iranian actors to create fake media content intended to suppress voting or stoke violence.
Authorities Urge Patience, Wait for Official Sources
Amid the increasing volume of inauthentic election content online, US officials have urged voters to seek out information from trusted, official sources, in particular state and local election officials.
A separate statement from CISA and the US Election Assistance Commission (EAC) paid tribute to the efforts of all election officials in ensuring a safe and fair election.
The agencies acknowledged there will be challenges on election day, but that Americans should have confidence that the election is secure and results will be counted accurately.
They also asked for patience, waiting until all votes have been counted and officially announced.
“Remember election night results are always unofficial. While the focus on election night is on who won and who lost, those races are called by the media, not election officials,” they wrote.
“In the days and weeks to come, election officials will count every eligible ballot, including ballots cast in-person on or before Election Day, mail ballots, provisional ballots, and ballots cast by military and overseas voters. Accurately counting millions of ballots takes time and it is important to be patient,” the agencies added.