U.S. authorities have said that Russian actors were behind a fake video circulated on social media that purported to show the destruction of mail-in votes cast for Republican candidate and former President Donald Trump in the swing state of Pennsylvania ahead of the November 5 presidential election.
The video, which had millions of views on platforms such as X, after appearing on social media on October 24, depicted a man sifting through ballots from Pennsylvania's Bucks County and tearing up those cast for Trump.
The man, who was black, appeared to be ripping up ballots marked for the Republican candidate, while leaving intact ballots marked for Vice President Kamala Harris, who is black.
"The Intelligence Community (IC) assesses that Russian actors manufactured and amplified a recent video that falsely depicted an individual ripping up ballots in Pennsylvania, judging from information available to the IC and prior activities of other Russian influence actors, including videos and other disinformation activities," the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said in a joint statement issued on October 25.
The statement said that the video was debunked within three hours by local election officials and law enforcement officials after citizens reported it to authorities.
"This Russian activity is part of Moscow's broader effort to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of the U.S. election and stoke divisions among Americans, as detailed in prior ODNI election updates," the statement said.
Analysts who monitor Moscow's foreign-influence campaigns had previously linked the video to a Russian propagandist group known as Storm-1516 or CopyCop.
Observers say that Storm-1516, which has previously posted several videos containing fake claims about Harris and her running mate, Tim Walz, is an offshoot of the Internet Research Agency, a former Russian propagandist network based in Russia's second-largest city, St. Petersburg, and established by Yevgeny Prigozhin, the late leader of the Russian mercenary group Wagner.
The U.S. intelligence community warned that more disinformation and propaganda actions orchestrated by Russia are likely to surface in the run-up to the November 5 poll.
"In the lead-up to Election Day and in the weeks and months after, 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."