Georgia official asks social media sites to take down Russian disinformation video

Georgia’s secretary of state asked X and other social media sites to take down a fake video being pushed by accounts with ties to a prominent Russian disinformation network. 

On Thursday afternoon, a video began circulating on X purporting to show Haitian immigrants being given U.S. identification documents allowing them to vote in the state of Georgia. 

The post was quickly debunked and disinformation experts immediately were able to link it to the disinformation group Storm-1516.

By Thursday evening, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger released a statement confirming that the video was fake and an “example of targeted disinformation we've seen in this and other elections.” As of early Friday morning, the video was still on X, and the account that spread it had nearly 650,000 followers. By 9:45 a.m. Eastern time, the post had disappeared.

Spokespersons for X did not respond to requests for comment. 

“It is likely foreign interference attempting to sow discord and chaos on the eve of the 2024 Presidential election. We are working to combat this and identify the origin of it with our state and federal partners,” including the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), Raffensperger said. 

“In the meantime, we ask Elon Musk and the leadership of other social media platforms to take this down,” he said. “This is obviously fake and part of a disinformation effort. Likely it is a production of Russian troll farms. As Americans we can't let our enemies use lies to divide us and undermine our faith in our institutions - or each other." 

Read More: Russia behind latest election disinformation video, US intel agencies say

The same disinformation network attempted on Wednesday to spread fake information tying the husband of Vice President Kamala Harris to the legal case surrounding music industry figure Sean Combs. 

U.S. officials at the state and federal level have sought to quickly debunk election disinformation amid an unprecedented deluge of attempts by Russia, China and Iran to spread fake videos and content about both parties and the electoral process. 

Last week, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), FBI and CISA released a statement confirming that they believe Russian actors “manufactured and amplified a recent video that falsely depicted an individual ripping up ballots” in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

“Local election officials have already debunked the video’s content. This Russian activity is part of Moscow’s broader effort to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of the US election and stoke divisions among Americans, as detailed in prior ODNI election updates,” the agencies said.

Microsoft and other large tech companies have repeatedly spotlighted attempts by Russian actors to spread fake information about Harris and her running mate Tim Walz. The Russian actors involved in the posts about Combs and Harris also attempted to spread a fake video related to Walz two weeks ago.

After taking over for President Joe Biden as the Democratic candidate for president, Harris was targeted by Russia with two fake videos — one of which falsely claimed she was involved in a hit-and-run accident. 

Many of the fake videos and posts are created using artificial intelligence, something generative AI companies have since warned of themselves.

Correction: A previous version of this story mistakenly said researchers have tied Storm-1516 to the Russian Presidential Administration.