Published on: October 30, 2024
US officials have accused Russian threat actors of producing a fake video depicting pro-Trump mail-in ballots being destroyed in Pennsylvania.
The video first surfaced on Thursday and showed an individual ripping up ballots that were supposedly for Donald Trump. The person, who was an African American, was tearing up ballets with the Trump label while ignoring ballots for the current VP Kamala Harris.
It was an attempt to rile up US voters to influence the results of the 2024 election and dissuade people from mail-in voting, but it was ultimately debunked within 3 hours of its release. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a letter explaining that the video was fraudulent.
“The IC assesses that Russian actors manufactured and amplified a recent video that falsely depicted an individual ripping up ballots in Pennsylvania,” reads the joint statement between the FBI, CISA, and ODNI.
“Judging from information available to the IC and prior activities of other Russian influence actors, including videos and other disinformation activities. Local election officials have already debunked the video’s content.”
Experts, including the co-director of the Media Forensics Hub at Clemson University, Darren Linvill, believe that the same group that made the Bucks County videos made this one. Last week, multiple videos were released supposedly demonstrating multiple cases of election fraud and suspicious activity within Bucks County. Since their release, each video has been proven fake.
Linvill believes the new video matches the same style used for those. Some dead giveaways that the video is fake include that US officials cannot begin processing mail-in ballots until 7 a.m. on election day and that the green on the edge of the envelope also doesn’t match any official ballots green.
“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,” the joint statement declares. “The IC expects Russia to create and release additional media content that seeks to undermine trust in the integrity of the election and divide Americans.”