Microsoft: Russian Groups Behind the Spread of Fake Videos Against Kamala Harris

As warnings increase regarding foreign interference in U.S. elections, Microsoft announced that Russian agents are attempting to undermine Kamala Harris's campaign, the Vice President and Democratic candidate in the upcoming U.S. presidential election, by disseminating conspiracy-laden videos. Just a day earlier, Meta, the owner of Facebook, announced it would remove several Russian news networks from its platforms due to their use of deceptive tactics to conduct covert online interference operations in the elections. These reports come after the U.S. government accused the Russian state news agency RT of attempting to influence the presidential election in November and imposed sanctions on its senior editors. On Wednesday, September 19, Microsoft reported that since late August, a Kremlin-aligned influence group named 'Storm 1516' produced two fake videos to discredit Harris and her colleague Tim Walz, both of which garnered millions of views. One video shows a group of Harris supporters attacking a hypothetical participant at a Trump rally, while the second video features an actor making fabricated claims that Harris paralyzed a girl in 2011. The report states that the second video was published through a website posing as a local San Francisco media outlet. A second Russian group known as 'Storm 1679' has focused on the 2024 Paris Olympics to release misleading videos that discredit Harris. Clint Watts, head of Microsoft's Threat Analysis Center, stated, 'The shift in focus to the Harris-Walz campaign represents a strategic move by Russian actors aimed at exploiting candidates' vulnerabilities.' He added that 'as the elections approach, we should expect Russian actors to continue using cyber proxies and hacker groups to amplify their messages through media websites and social channels with the aim of spreading divisive political content, staged videos, and AI-enhanced propaganda.' Microsoft's report was released a day before a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on foreign threats to the upcoming U.S. elections. On Monday, the tech giant Meta also announced it would ban Russian state media from accessing its platforms worldwide due to their interventionist activities. This ban followed accusations from the United States that RT and its employees transferred $10 million through shell entities to secretly fund interference operations on social media channels including TikTok, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), and YouTube. Meta, which owns Facebook, also imposed restrictions on the news agencies Sputnik and RIA Novosti, as well as the two Russian television networks Ruptly and Novosti. This ban, which has been heavily criticized by the Kremlin, signifies an escalation of actions by the world's largest social media company against Russian state media, following years of more limited steps such as blocking media from running ads and reducing access to their posts. YouTube also announced that it had blocked over 230 channels affiliated with RT (Russia Today). In addition to Facebook, Meta's applications including Instagram, WhatsApp, and Threads are also implementing these restrictions. Previously, RT had over 7.2 million followers on Facebook and over one million followers on Instagram. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, responded to these restrictions on Tuesday, September 19, stating, 'Meta is discrediting itself with these actions. Such selective actions against Russian media are unacceptable... This complicates the prospects for normalizing our relations with Meta.' In 2022, Russia designated Meta as an 'extremist' organization and blocked Instagram and Facebook. Russia has also criticized Meta's previous efforts to limit access to Russian media and has fined the company multiple times for not removing content it deems illegal. Previous bans by Moscow on Instagram and Facebook may limit its ability to respond to Meta's state media block, but WhatsApp, which Russia has so far refrained from banning, is used by millions of Russian citizens. The Telegram messaging app, which last month saw its Russian founder Pavel Durov inspected officially in France, is also widely used in Russia.