FBI warns of fake Election Day video designed to scare off voters – Mother Jones

Matt Rourke/AP

FBI issued a warning on election day about a fake video purporting to be a news clip broadcasting an agency warning of a “high terrorist threat” at polling places.

“This video is not authentic and does not accurately depict the current threat or security of a polling place,” the agency said in a press release about the video, which appeared to be designed to discourage Americans from voting.

According to the FBI, the fake video falsely states that Americans should “vote remotely” due to a supposed threat. CBS News reported that the video was fake news. was designed to look like it came from their networkadding: “U.S. officials issued no such warning, and CBS News produced no such report.”

Although at least two Twitter accounts spreading the hoax have already been suspended, there is little evidence that the video was widely viewed, even on public platforms like Twitter or Rumble, where misinformation and fake videos were freely distributed throughout the election period.

In the same press release, the agency also warned of another fake video “containing a fabricated FBI press release” that “alleges that officials at five prisons in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona rigged inmate voting and colluded with a political party.” The FBI says this “video is also not authentic and its contents are false.” As with the “high terrorist threat” video, there is little evidence that the prison video is being widely circulated, although it was shared by a Twitter account. was suspended.

While the source of the videos was not immediately clear, they bore some similarities to hoax videos produced by Storm 1516, a propaganda arm backed by the Russian government. Storm-1516 appears to have been especially busy in the final months of this election cycle, allegedly doctoring videos. designed to look for example, Haitian immigrants voted illegally in Georgia, and many other videos allegedly portraying “informants” calling attention to alleged American political corruption.

An anonymous Trump supporter who pays for a Twitter account told CNN in a report published Monday that he was paid 100 dollars publish a video of Haitian immigrants by Simeon Boykov, whom CNN calls a “Russian propagandist podcaster.”