Many videos are shared en masse by Donald Trump supporters on social networks. Behind some are Russian influence operations.
Lies on all fronts. While 160 million registered voters will decide the outcome of the American presidential election on Tuesday, November 5, misleading statements about the vote in the United States are increasing. Many claim to show election fraud to favor the Democratic camp, but in reality these are errors or outright lies.
A number of videos also bear the mark of Russian disinformation services, according to American authorities, and are often consciously or unconsciously amplified by supporters of Donald Trump, including the most famous of all: Elon Musk, the richest man of the world. Here is a summary of the main false information relayed in the final days of the campaign.
A video with fake Haitian migrants
In a video published on October 31, two men present themselves as Haitian migrants who quickly obtained American nationality. They claim to have voted several times for Kamala Harris in different counties in the state of Georgia, using several copies of an ID with the same photo. They also seem to encourage other Haitians to come to the United States with their families. This publication was widely shared on the social network
But this video is indeed staged. The proof: the names appearing on the driving licenses visible in the image are not registered on the electoral lists of the counties mentioned in the video, according to the site Politifact.com. The men in the video cannot therefore have voted as they claim. Furthermore, the addresses appearing on these documents are false and the photo is an illustrative image found on the internet under the name “happy african man smiling”points out a BBC journalist.
American authorities were quick to denounce the deception. As of October 31, the Republican governor of Georgia denounced in a press release a video “obviously false and part of an attempt at disinformation (…) to sow discord and chaos on the eve of the election”. And point “the probable production of a Russian troll farm”. The FBI also supports the thesis of Russian origin, affirming that this video “part of broader efforts by Moscow to stoke divisions among Americans”.
A video purportedly from the FBI
Some liars also try to pass themselves off as legitimate authorities. An account on “These videos are not authentic, do not come from the FBI and their content is false”the agency also denied on X.
The impact of these videos should, however, be limited. “Not all views, shares, and likes you see on this post are genuine [et] come from networks of fake accounts ready-to-use products that these people use regularly”says Eliot Higgins, founder of the investigative media Bellingcat, on
A fake article on links with P. Diddy
False assertions have also attempted to link the Democratic camp to a man accused of sexual and even child abuse: the rapper P. Diddy, accused by more than 120 people of multiple rapes and sexual assaults. On October 30, a website called “Patriot Voice” claimed that Kamala Harris's husband, Doug Ermhoff, had warned the rapper that searches were going to be carried out on one of his properties in exchange for a bribe of $500,000.
The site claims to rely on the confession of an anonymous lawyer. He also makes assumptions about possible links between the couple of the American vice-president and Sean Combs, with very fragile arguments. But the FBI says the confession is false. “Russian influence actors also produced a video falsely accusing a person associated with the Democratic presidential candidate of accepting a bribe from an American artist”he assures in a press release, without mentioning any names.
The “Patriot Voice” site had already relayed false information about fake Haitian migrants. Donald Trump's supporters, close to the QAnon conspiracy movement, regularly accuse Democrats and their supporters of child abuse. As in 2016 with the erroneous “Pizzagate” theory according to which Democratic officials including Hillary Clinton organized child sex trafficking through the basement of a Washington pizzeria.
A misleading video about voting machines
As in 2020, many Trump supporters are repeating false or misleading claims about Dominion voting machines, accused of malfunctioning or of being knowingly modified to disadvantage the Republican candidate. A video published on October 31 and filmed in the state of Kentucky shows a voter trying several times to vote for Donald Trump, without success. After multiple attempts, the machine even ended up selecting the Democratic candidate instead. “For what [ces erreurs] always seem to go one way and not the other? one of the accounts relaying this video pretends to wonder.
The incident is true and has been handled by local authorities. Laurel County Clerk Tony Brown wrote on Facebook that the affected machine had been removed from the polling place, that the bug was real but very difficult to reproduce, and that the office had not received any further complaint before or after it. The Republican elected official specifies that this machine does not directly record the vote, but only serves to register them on a paper ballot which the voter must then scan, if it suits them.
The Attorney General of Kentucky, also a Republican, claims to have “responded quickly” to the county's complaint, having recommended changing the affected voting machine. He promises that “all Kentucky voters can be confident” and that “every potential problem will be dealt with promptly”. Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams, also a Republican, confirms on X that the voter was able to vote for the candidate of his choice and concludes by calling for information from “reliable sources”.
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