US officials Friday (Oct 25) blamed ‘Russian actors’ for a viral video allegedly showing mail-in ballots for Donald Trump being destroyed in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state.
The video shows a man deliberately destroying mail-in ballots for Trump from the state’s Bucks County.
However, the video was declared ‘fake’ on Thursday by the Bucks county board of elections. The board said the envelope and other materials seen in the video were not authentic and didn’t belong to them.
On Friday, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a joint statement, saying the video was a part of Russian disinformation agenda.
“Russian actors manufactured and amplified a recent video that falsely depicted an individual ripping up ballots in Pennsylvania,” the statement said.
“This Russian activity is part of Moscow’s broader effort to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of the US election and stoke divisions among Americans,” it added.
Researchers like Darren Linvill, co-director of Clemson University’s Media Forensics Hub, also debunked the video and said it was linked to the Kremlin’s disinformation network known as “Storm-1516”.
Russia ‘undermining’ integrity of US elections
The joint statement accused Russia of trying to “undermine trust” in the integrity of the 5 November elections.
The US officials said, however, they were expecting Russia and other foreign actors to ramp up such efforts of interference.
US researchers claim that Storm-1516 has previously engaged in producing fake videos targeting the campaigns of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and her running mate Tim Walz.
US officials believe that apart from Russia, China and Iran are also trying to influence American elections and fan “divisive narratives.”
A statement by ODNI earlier said, “These actors probably perceive that undermining confidence in the elections weakens the legitimacy of our democracy and consequently makes the United States less capable of effectively pursuing policies that are counter to their interests.”
(With inputs from agencies)