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Weird, a bunch of our MAGA posters have been posting about how Putin "prefers" Biden. Me? I will believe the NSA and CIA.
Dustin Volz
Updated July 9, 2024
WASHINGTON—The Russian government has launched a “whole-of-government” effort to influence the outcome of the U.S. presidential election and favors Republican candidate Donald Trump in the race, senior U.S. intelligence officials said Tuesday.
The officials didn’t mention Trump by name, but said that Russia’s current activity—described as covert social-media use and other online propaganda efforts—mirrored the 2020 and 2016 election cycles, when Moscow also favored Trump and sought to undermine Democratic candidates, according to U.S. intelligence agencies.
“We haven’t observed a shift in Russia’s preferences for the presidential race from past elections,” a senior official in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said, during a media briefing summarizing intelligence on foreign threats to the election.
Along with Russia, Iran has become “increasingly aggressive” in its foreign influence efforts, including in recent weeks by covertly encouraging protests against the war in Gaza, Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, said in a separate statement on Tuesday.
The warnings underscore how U.S. adversaries are continuing to exploit social-media platforms and other avenues to manipulate public opinion, despite efforts by the intelligence and law-enforcement agencies to expose and crack down on the influence operations.
The Russian embassy in Washington didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the Iranian government didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
Russia was seeking to influence specific voting groups, including those in swing states, promote divisive narratives and denigrate specific politicians, the officials who briefed reporters said. They declined to provide details about the voters or politicians who have been targeted
The Kremlin is also working to influence members of Congress and is broadly seeking to undermine U.S. support for Ukraine in its war with Russia, the officials said.
Moscow employs commercial firms to obscure its involvement and attempts to spread propaganda by planting it with influential Americans, the senior ODNI official said.
Officials indicated that the activity witnessed so far this election cycle isn’t on the scale or scope seen in 2016, when Russia’s actions included a hack-and-leak of Democratic Party emails, rudimentary cyber-probing of some state election systems and other actions intended to undermine Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
But they said Moscow and other countries were likely to increase their efforts to influence the race as the November election date drew closer.
Russia was the “pre-eminent threat” to the presidential election, the ODNI official said. By contrast Iran was a lesser threat at the moment, aiming to be a “chaos agent” in the election by exacerbating social tensions, the official said.
“We have observed actors tied to Iran’s government posing as activists online, seeking to encourage protests, and even providing financial support to protesters,” Haines said.
The statement didn’t describe how extensively the Iranians have sought to penetrate Gaza protests, which have occurred in many U.S. locations.
“Americans who participate in protests are, in good faith, expressing their views on the conflict in Gaza—this intelligence doesn’t indicate otherwise,” Haines said. Protesters may not be aware they are “interacting with or receiving support from a foreign government.”
In contrast to Russia and Iran, China doesn’t appear to be seeking to interfere in the U.S. election, the official who briefed reporters said. U.S. intelligence agencies came to a similar conclusion concerning China’s involvement around the 2020 presidential election.
“We assess China, for now, doesn’t plan to influence the outcome of the presidential race because it sees little gain in choosing between two parties that it perceives as both seeking to contain Beijing,” the ODNI official said.
China has told its diplomatic officials in Washington to avoid even the appearance of interfering with U.S. elections, fearing the kind of backlash Russia faced in the years after 2016. China’s diplomats have been told to avoid even discussing a preference between the candidates, senior Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said.
The findings highlight the rising concerns by U.S. officials and security experts about foreign adversaries potentially pouring resources into the 2024 presidential election contest eight years after Russia engineered a multipronged interference campaign seeking to help Trump defeat Clinton.
The efforts observed so far haven’t included attempts to disrupt procedures of the election itself, officials said.
Developments in artificial intelligence pose additional risks to the 2024 election, the intelligence officials said, calling it a “malign influence accelerant” that allowed bad actors to quickly create convincing audio and video deepfakes. The technology was used during recent elections in Taiwan and India for deceptive purposes, the officials said.
“We are monitoring foreign actors seeking to create deepfakes of politicians, flood the information space with false or misleading information, to sow doubt about what is real and to amplify narratives,” the ODNI official said.
The Justice Department announced Tuesday a takedown of computer infrastructure in the Netherlands that enabled a Russia-linked disinformation bot farm that had been operating on X, formerly Twitter. The bots, numbering nearly a thousand accounts, relied on artificial intelligence to create bogus user profiles and spammed posts in support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to the Justice Department, which relied on cooperation from Dutch authorities to disrupt the operation.
U.S. officials said the operation was financed by the Kremlin and organized by an employee of a state-owned media outlet who is a member of a Russian intelligence service. It was the first time the U.S. had publicly accused a foreign government of using generative AI technology in support of a foreign-influence operation against Americans, officials said.
Russia Seeks to Boost Trump in 2024 Election, U.S. Intelligence Officials Say
Other foreign-influence operations in the U.S. include attempts by Iran to covertly encourage protests against the war in Gaza, officials say
ByDustin Volz
Updated July 9, 2024
WASHINGTON—The Russian government has launched a “whole-of-government” effort to influence the outcome of the U.S. presidential election and favors Republican candidate Donald Trump in the race, senior U.S. intelligence officials said Tuesday.
The officials didn’t mention Trump by name, but said that Russia’s current activity—described as covert social-media use and other online propaganda efforts—mirrored the 2020 and 2016 election cycles, when Moscow also favored Trump and sought to undermine Democratic candidates, according to U.S. intelligence agencies.
“We haven’t observed a shift in Russia’s preferences for the presidential race from past elections,” a senior official in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said, during a media briefing summarizing intelligence on foreign threats to the election.
Along with Russia, Iran has become “increasingly aggressive” in its foreign influence efforts, including in recent weeks by covertly encouraging protests against the war in Gaza, Avril Haines, the director of national intelligence, said in a separate statement on Tuesday.
The warnings underscore how U.S. adversaries are continuing to exploit social-media platforms and other avenues to manipulate public opinion, despite efforts by the intelligence and law-enforcement agencies to expose and crack down on the influence operations.
The Russian embassy in Washington didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the Iranian government didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.
Russia was seeking to influence specific voting groups, including those in swing states, promote divisive narratives and denigrate specific politicians, the officials who briefed reporters said. They declined to provide details about the voters or politicians who have been targeted
The Kremlin is also working to influence members of Congress and is broadly seeking to undermine U.S. support for Ukraine in its war with Russia, the officials said.
Moscow employs commercial firms to obscure its involvement and attempts to spread propaganda by planting it with influential Americans, the senior ODNI official said.
Officials indicated that the activity witnessed so far this election cycle isn’t on the scale or scope seen in 2016, when Russia’s actions included a hack-and-leak of Democratic Party emails, rudimentary cyber-probing of some state election systems and other actions intended to undermine Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign.
But they said Moscow and other countries were likely to increase their efforts to influence the race as the November election date drew closer.
Russia was the “pre-eminent threat” to the presidential election, the ODNI official said. By contrast Iran was a lesser threat at the moment, aiming to be a “chaos agent” in the election by exacerbating social tensions, the official said.
“We have observed actors tied to Iran’s government posing as activists online, seeking to encourage protests, and even providing financial support to protesters,” Haines said.
The statement didn’t describe how extensively the Iranians have sought to penetrate Gaza protests, which have occurred in many U.S. locations.
“Americans who participate in protests are, in good faith, expressing their views on the conflict in Gaza—this intelligence doesn’t indicate otherwise,” Haines said. Protesters may not be aware they are “interacting with or receiving support from a foreign government.”
In contrast to Russia and Iran, China doesn’t appear to be seeking to interfere in the U.S. election, the official who briefed reporters said. U.S. intelligence agencies came to a similar conclusion concerning China’s involvement around the 2020 presidential election.
“We assess China, for now, doesn’t plan to influence the outcome of the presidential race because it sees little gain in choosing between two parties that it perceives as both seeking to contain Beijing,” the ODNI official said.
China has told its diplomatic officials in Washington to avoid even the appearance of interfering with U.S. elections, fearing the kind of backlash Russia faced in the years after 2016. China’s diplomats have been told to avoid even discussing a preference between the candidates, senior Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said.
The findings highlight the rising concerns by U.S. officials and security experts about foreign adversaries potentially pouring resources into the 2024 presidential election contest eight years after Russia engineered a multipronged interference campaign seeking to help Trump defeat Clinton.
The efforts observed so far haven’t included attempts to disrupt procedures of the election itself, officials said.
Developments in artificial intelligence pose additional risks to the 2024 election, the intelligence officials said, calling it a “malign influence accelerant” that allowed bad actors to quickly create convincing audio and video deepfakes. The technology was used during recent elections in Taiwan and India for deceptive purposes, the officials said.
“We are monitoring foreign actors seeking to create deepfakes of politicians, flood the information space with false or misleading information, to sow doubt about what is real and to amplify narratives,” the ODNI official said.
The Justice Department announced Tuesday a takedown of computer infrastructure in the Netherlands that enabled a Russia-linked disinformation bot farm that had been operating on X, formerly Twitter. The bots, numbering nearly a thousand accounts, relied on artificial intelligence to create bogus user profiles and spammed posts in support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to the Justice Department, which relied on cooperation from Dutch authorities to disrupt the operation.
U.S. officials said the operation was financed by the Kremlin and organized by an employee of a state-owned media outlet who is a member of a Russian intelligence service. It was the first time the U.S. had publicly accused a foreign government of using generative AI technology in support of a foreign-influence operation against Americans, officials said.
