Authorities warn against fake US election videos but little disruption seen

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The FBI warned Americans on Tuesday about two new fake videos citing terrorist threats and voter fraud; It’s the latest in a series of disinformation that officials expect to intensify as voters head to the polls on Election Day.

A fabricated video purporting to be from a federal law enforcement agency falsely cited a high terrorist threat and encouraged Americans to “vote remotely,” while another video purported to be from the agency and a fake press release claiming fraudulent voting among inmates at five prisons Contains .

Both “are untrue,” the Federal Bureau of Investigation said in a statement, adding, “Attempts to deceive the public with false content about the FBI’s threat assessments and activities are intended to undermine our democratic process and undermine confidence in the electoral system.” he said.

Federal, state and local officials are warning Americans about attempts to undermine the election with misinformation and urging U.S. voters to get reliable information from reliable sources.

As of 11 a.m. U.S. Eastern Time (2 p.m. GMT), there was little evidence of actual or widespread disruption.

Cait Conley, the top official at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said in a press briefing on Tuesday that CISA is not currently tracking any domestic incidents affecting the security of U.S. election infrastructure, but warned that foreign actors may try to portray the situation differently. .

“As we have said repeatedly, we may see more of this activity today and in the coming weeks, with a particular focus on impact narratives impacting volatile states,” Conley said.

On Monday, U.S. intelligence agencies said they expected overseas influence operations to “intensify throughout election day and in the coming weeks, particularly in the seven battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.”

Still, Jen Easterly, director of the U.S. cybersecurity agency, said her department had seen no evidence of any activity that could directly affect the outcome of Tuesday’s election.

US intelligence agencies last week accused Russia of a fake video showing a Haitian immigrant claiming to have voted multiple times in the US state of Georgia. Over the weekend, the FBI warned of several other fake videos.

Russia routinely denies interfering in American politics.

(Reporting by Susan Heavey, Raphael Satter, James Pearson and AJ Vicens; Editing by Andrea Ricci and Alistair Bell)