Russian troll farm spreads fake videos of Harris

Russian bots are spreading fake videos of US presidential candidate Kamala Harris on the Internet. The videos are aimed at discrediting the democrat and her campaign.

This is reported by RBC-Ukraine with reference to a report by the Microsoft Threat Analysis Centre (MTAC).

It is noted that there have been changes in the tactics of Russian influence on the political situation in the United States over the past few months. The Russians have focused on the Harris-Wallace campaign, in particular, spreading disinformation videos.

The report mentions two troll groups - Storm-1516 and the new Storm-1679. They created and distributed two videos about Harris that received millions of views.

The first video shows Harris' alleged supporters attacking a participant in a rally in support of Donald Trump. In another video, an actress resembling Harris is shown fleeing the scene of a fake car accident.

The videos appear on the Internet on behalf of a local media outlet in San Francisco, which was created only a few days before the fake videos were published.

A new group of trolls, Storm-1679, has shifted its focus from producing content about the Paris Olympics to publishing false videos discrediting Harris. One of them shows a billboard in New York City with false statements by the US vice president. The video received over 100,000 views on Telegram in four hours.

As Microsoft noted, with the US elections approaching, we should expect an increase in fake political videos created and distributed by Russia.

Author - Olena Madiak, 18/09/2024