United States: The FBI on Tuesday informed Americans about two new fake videos, one claiming to involve a terror threat and other purporting to be about voter fraud, as officials expect more disinformation as people prepare to vote on Election Day.
There was one fake video claiming to be from the actual bureau of the federal law enforcement agency, the high terror threat in America, the American people should vote remotely, and another fake video that has a bogus press release from the agency itself saying voting has been rigged in five prisons, as reported by Reuters.
“Attempts to Undermine Democracy,” FBI Warns
Both are “not authentic,” the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement, “Attempts to deceive the public with false content about FBI threat assessments and activities aim to undermine our democratic process and erode trust in the electoral system.”
Both federal, state, and local authorities have been trying to alert Americans about efforts to disrupt the election with misinformation and have encouraged U.S. voters to go and get accurate information from the right sources.
Federal Officials Monitor Election Security
By 11 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time (1400 GMT), there are few signs of it being anything but an honest protest or widespread in any way.
Cait Conley, a senior official at CISA, stated this during a media briefing on Tuesday, stating that the CISA was not aware of any nationwide incidents that were threatening the security of the U.S. election infrastructure despite the chance of interference attempts by foreign actors.
“As we’ve said repeatedly, we may see more of this activity today and in the coming weeks, with a particular focus on influence narratives impacting swing states,” Conley said.
Increased Disinformation Expected in Swing States
On Monday, the U.S. intelligence agencies warned that it anticipated overseas influence operations to ramp up till election day and in the subsequent weeks primarily in seven swing states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Nevertheless, the head of the US cybersecurity agency, Jen Easterly, stated that her department had reported no incidents that could potentially interfere with the election result on Tuesday, as reported by Reuters.
Fake Video Linked to Russia Sparks Concern
U.S. intelligence agencies last week attributed a spurious video about a Haitian immigrant allegedly voting in the U.S. state of Georgia and multiple times to Russia. On the weekend, the FBI said that there were several other fake videos.