A video circulating on social media claiming that people from Haiti voted illegally in Georgia is “targeted disinformation” meant to create doubt in the election, said Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger.
“This is false, and is an example of targeted disinformation we’ve seen this election. It is likely foreign interference attempting to sow discord and chaos on the eve of the election,” Raffensperger said.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the FBI, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency released a joint statement Friday that the video appeared to be part of a Russian influence operation.
“The IC (intelligence community) assesses that Russian influence actors manufactured a recent video that falsely depicted individuals claiming to be from Haiti and voting illegally in multiple counties in Georgia,” the statement reads. “This judgment is based on information available to the IC and prior activities of other Russian influence actors, including videos and other disinformation activities. The Georgia Secretary of State has already refuted the video’s claims as false.”
The roughly 20-second video shared by right-wing conspiracy theorists shows a man claiming to have voted illegally in both Fulton and Gwinnett counties.
Raffensperger’s office looked up the driver’s license of one of the alleged voters and determined it was a fake. He urged Twitter owner Elon Musk, a prominent ally of former President Donald Trump, and other social media tycoons to take down the post, but posts featuring the video were still on the platform Friday morning.
“As Americans we can’t let our enemies use lies to divide us and undermine faith in our institutions — or each other,” Raffensperger said in a statement.
A recent audit by the secretary of state’s office found 20 non-U.S. citizens out of 8.2 million registered voters. Their registrations have been canceled, and they didn’t vote in this year’s election.
Senior U.S. intelligence officials have warned that Russia and Iran could try to prompt violent protests in the U.S., according to a recently declassified memo. It said Russian military intelligence in January attempted to recruit what U.S. officials called a “probably unwitting” American to organize protests in the U.S.
Chris Krebs, the former director of the national Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, called this latest video “more nonsense from Russian troll farms” that will only intensify ahead of the election.
“You’re the mark. They think you’re stupid,” Krebs posted on social media. “They think you’re incapable of half an ounce of critical thinking. Prove them wrong.”
