“Russia is the most active threat” in the pivotal states, where the American election on Tuesday, November 5 will be played out. American intelligence services accused Moscow on Monday of being “actively” involved in disinformation operations in these locations. These seven so-called key states (Arizona, Nevada, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin), because they can swing to one political side or the other, are already the target of allegations by Republicans of ” cheating” and “fraud” allegedly carried out by Democrats. As a reminder, Donald Trump still refuses to recognize his defeat in the 2020 election, regularly repeating that it was “stolen” by President Joe Biden.
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The fear of the American services is that these attempts at disinformation will incite violence, “including against electoral officials”, warn in a joint press release the federal police (FBI), the office of the director of national intelligence ( ODNI) and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA). According to the ODNI, for example, a video recently circulated on social networks with an interview with a person claiming that fraud with false ballots and alterations of electoral lists should favor Kamala Harris in Arizona.
Influencer remuneration
Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes called the video “completely bogus” and his state, considered a bastion of electoral conspiracy, took measures to protect its election officials and voting operations. His counterpart in Georgia (southeast), Brad Raffensperger, reported Thursday to him “a video purporting to show a Haitian immigrant possessing several Georgia identity cards and claiming to have voted several times.” The FBI, ODNI and CISA confirmed that “Russian agents of influence fabricated” this video.
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It was first published on the account of a pro-Trump influencer, who later admitted to having repeatedly received money from a Russian agent to post videos spreading false information, as revealed by CNN on Monday November 4. “The man said Simeon Boikov, a Russian propagandist podcaster known online as 'AussieCossack,' offered him $100 to post the video, which he accepted.”
Just as a legitimate business would rely on a popular influencer to increase sales, Russian agents target online personalities to take advantage of their highly engaged subscribers, Darren Linvill, disinformation expert and co-director of Media, explains to the American channel. Clemson University Forensics Hub. “There is a reason why marketing companies and political campaigns use social media influencers to promote their messages: they do it because it works,” he points out, adding: “The digital world has become the real world, and people trust social media influencers like they trust their real-world friends.”
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Moscow denounced on Saturday these “unfounded allegations” and “all insinuations about “Russian machinations (like) malicious slander.” This is not the first time during this American presidential campaign that Washington has accused Moscow, but also Tehran, to engage in disinformation operations on social networks in order to provoke unrest As during Donald Trump's victorious campaign in 2016, Russia denied any destabilizing activity on the Internet and assured “to respect the will of the American people”. .
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