Russia is behind the assaults on a vice presidential candidate: A case study of a viral attack against a former student of Tim Walz
Russia was behind salacious false claims against Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz that circulated widely on social media last week, according to U.S. intelligence officials.
That includes a video from earlier this year that intelligence officials say Russia staged in which a woman claimed to be the victim of a hit-and-run accident by Vice President Kamala Harris in 2011. The website claimed to be a local San Francisco TV station. There is no evidence any such incident occurred, and the purported TV station does not exist.
The highest levels of the Republican party can be reached with the work of the propaganda unit. NBC reported this week that the group has pushed at least 50 false narratives in this manner since last fall, which comes amid a broader Russian government effort to disrupt next month’s election with the aim of helping former president Donald Trump return to the White House.
Jack Posobiec, the Pizzagate promoter who is now a member of the Trump campaign team, is one of the figures that helped boost the assault claims against Tim Walz. The claims went viral on X last week, when an anonymous account called Black Insurrectionist posted screenshots of emails from a purported victim. The X users who responded were quick to dismiss the claims because of formatting errors in the images that suggested the emails were fake, but days later a conspiracist posted a video on X claiming he spoke to one of the accusers on the phone. The video racked up millions of hits.
Then, on Wednesday, a video claiming to show a former student of Walz describing abuse by the former football coach spread widely on X. According to a WIRED analysis using several deepfake detector tools, the video was created using AI. The video was shared by an anonymous account, and had 4.3 million views before being deleted.
A briefing on Russian tampering of the 2020 election: ‘Cosmology of a pro-Trump vice presidential candidate’
The U.S. says Iran favors Harris while Russia favors Trump in the election. China does not have a preference in the presidential contest but is trying to sway downballot races, officials have said.
At Tuesday’s briefing, intelligence officials said efforts by geopolitical adversaries to divide Americans will “intensify” in the lead up to Election Day and continue after polls close.
“This video is consistent with the pattern of Russian influence actors seeking to undermine the Democratic presidential ticket by fabricating allegations against them,” the official said. “One of their tactics they use is these staged direct-to-camera videos and trying to make them go viral.”
The claims were boosted by pro-Trump accounts with large followings. They had millions of views on various platforms. The post by the QAnon account had more than 4.3 million views before it was deleted, according to Wired.
Users on X and Fact checkers pointed out that there were obvious inconsistencies in the email that was supposed to come from the alleged victim, as well as a swastika in the text of the image.
“The intelligence community assesses that Russian influence actors created and amplified content alleging inappropriate activity committed by the Democratic vice presidential candidate during his earlier career,” an official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told reporters at a briefing on Tuesday.
The official said that Russia thinks the election can distract and weaken the United States, so they are expected to boost any questions about the election.
Both Russia and Iran are “probably willing to at least consider” inciting violence, including by stoking threats towards election workers and amplifying protests, officials said.
Intelligence officials say foreign adversaries will be better equipped to exploit post- election uncertainty due to what they have learned from the 2020 cycle and better understanding of what happens after polls close.