Individuals went to the polls on Tuesday in opposition to a backdrop of misinformation – a lot of it suspected of originating in Russia – because the FBI warned of faux movies and non-credible threats of terrorism aimed toward disrupting the US presidential election and discouraging voting.
These tensions had been stoked by Donald Trump supporters, and the previous US president himself. Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and Trump’s most vocal surrogate, tweeted a video of assist that appeared to reference the far-right QAnon ideology.
The video, displaying footage of the January 6 rebel and that includes Van Halen’s track Leap as a soundtrack, got here after an earlier social media publish from the entrepreneur that repeated parts of the debunked Pizzagate conspiracy from the 2016 presidential election.
“The hammer of justice is coming,” learn that earlier publish.
The flood of untruths was fed by Trump on Tuesday as he falsely claimed he had a “large lead” in opinion polls whereas casting doubt on the reliability of voting machines. Having already baselessly claimed that there was Democratic “dishonest” in Pennsylvania, the Republican nominee stated it was “an outrage” that it took so lengthy to rely votes in swing states.
The previous president additionally took liberties with the reality in an early election day video on his Reality Social platform. In an obvious reference to transgender boxers, the video featured Trump complaining that “males may beat up girls and win medals” – a supposed instance of how American values had collapsed beneath Joe Biden’s presidency, which the Republican has tied to his Democratic opponent, Kamala Harris.
The disinformation and false statements from the Trump marketing campaign got here as voting in a single key battleground state, Georgia, already confronted disruption following what appeared to pretend bomb threats in opposition to a minimum of two polling stations.
The threats had been made in opposition to polling stations at Etris Neighborhood Middle and Gullatt elementary college in Union Metropolis, on the outskirts of Atlanta, based on Fulton county police. Union Metropolis’s inhabitants is sort of 90% Black, based on the US Census Bureau, fuelling suspicions that the threats had been aimed toward disrupting a cohort anticipated to primarily vote for Harris.
Brad Raffensperger, Georgia’s Republican secretary of state, instructed journalists that the “non-credible” threats got here from Russia.
“We recognized the supply, and it was from Russia,” he stated, saying he believed that the supply had been a Russian troll farm.
“They’re as much as mischief, it appears, and so they don’t need us to have a clean, honest and correct election,” he added. “Something that may get us to struggle amongst ourselves – they’ll rely that as a victory.”
The bomb threats adopted a warning from the Workplace of the Director of Nationwide Intelligence [ODNI] on Monday that Russia, Iran and China had been concerned in efforts at election disruption however that Russia was “essentially the most energetic risk”.
“Affect actors linked to Russia specifically are manufacturing movies and creating pretend articles to undermine the legitimacy of the election, instill worry in voters concerning the election course of, and recommend Individuals are utilizing violence in opposition to one another as a consequence of political preferences, judging from info accessible to the IC [intelligence community],” an ODNI assertion stated.
“These efforts threat inciting violence, together with in opposition to election officers. We anticipate Russian actors will launch extra manufactured content material with these themes by way of election day and within the days and weeks after polls shut.”
Consistent with that assertion, the FBI on Tuesday dismissed a video – made to appear like a information clip and purporting to emanate from the bureau – advising Individuals to “vote remotely” as a consequence of a “excessive terror risk” at poling stations.
“This video isn’t genuine and doesn’t precisely signify the present risk posture or polling location security,” the bureau stated.
It additionally disavowed a separate video falsely depicting a political rigging voting amongst jail inmates.
In an announcement, the FBI stated there have been “two cases of its identify and insignia being misused in selling false narratives surrounding the election,” USA Right now reported.
The second video encompasses a pretend FBI press launch alleging that officers at 5 prisons in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona rigged voting amongst inmates and conspired with a political social gathering. “This video can also be not genuine, and its contents are false,” the FBI stated.
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