Microsoft says Russian operatives are ramping up attacks on Harris campaign with fake videos
Source: CNN Politics
Published 3:00 PM EDT, Tue September 17, 2024
CNN — Microsoft said Tuesday that Russian operatives have in recent weeks intensified their online attacks on Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign by producing and disseminating videos promoting “outlandish conspiracy theories” aimed at stoking US racial and political divisions.
One of the inauthentic videos, which Microsoft said had been viewed millions of times, claimed to show Harris supporters attacking an attendee of a Donald Trump rally. Another video falsely claimed that Harris paralyzed a young girl in a 2011 hit-and-run accident. Russian operatives promoted the latter story through a website pretending to be a local San Francisco media outlet, Microsoft researchers said.
Both videos were still accessible on X as of Tuesday afternoon, with one post of the video garnering 1.5 million views on its own. CNN has requested comment from the social media platform. The report is the latest evidence that Kremlin-linked trolls and digital operatives are ramping up their efforts to denigrate Harris’s campaign just weeks before the presidential election. US intelligence agencies warned in July that Russia planned to “covertly use social media” to try to sway public opinion and undermine support for Ukraine in swing states.
Russia’s preferences for the presidential race haven’t shifted since 2020 or 2016, when Moscow conducted a range of influence operations aimed at denigrating Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton, respectively, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. CNN has requested comment on the Microsoft report from the Harris-Walz campaign and from the Russian Embassy in Washington, DC.
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/17/politics/microsoft-russian-operatives-harris/index.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
