US intelligence has claimed that Russian operatives are the ones behind the fake video incident, showing an individual destroying the mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania as it is one of the crucial swing states, CNN reported.
In a joint announcement, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said: “The IC (Intelligence Community) assesses that Russian actors manufactured and amplified a recent video that falsely depicted an individual ripping up ballots in Pennsylvania, judging from information available to the IC and prior activities of other Russian influence actors, including videos and other disinformation activities.”
Referring to the video, agencies claimed that the Russians are trying to sabotage and this was one of their attempts to “raise unfounded questions about the integrity of the US election and stoke divisions among Americans” as election campaigns are in their final stretch.
Furthermore, the video was quickly exposed and analyzed by the Board of Elections in Bucks County, north of Philadelphia, and it announced on Thursday: “The envelope and materials depicted in this video are clearly not authentic materials belonging to or distributed by the Bucks County Board of Elections.”
The video was released on X and was shared among the people as a sign of voter fraud, as Pennsylvania is one of the crucial swing states that holds the key to the White House for both candidates.
An expert on Russian disinformation campaigns, Darren Linvill, said the video was contrived by Russian Operatives. He further told CNN that the video was “created in the style and manner of many previous” ones from a Russian information campaign known as Storm-1516.
He then added: “More importantly, it appeared for the first time from an account that has originated previous Storm narratives and routinely shares campaign content.”
According to intelligence officials, Russia, China, and Iran are all making attempts to create a doubtful scenario for the world to question US election liability.
Patricia Poprik, chair of the Bucks County Republican Party, told CNN that many voters are already doubtful about the process of voting through mail as she tried her best to reassure them.
She said: “It’s just scaring voters and it’s not what we want, I personally voted by mail. I believe it’s safe.”
Efforts made by the Bucks County GOPs to expose the truth behind the fake video are noteworthy, but still, it continued to spread among various social media sites.
At least nine other accounts are active including the one that uploaded the video by CNN Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, Rumble, X, Gettr, Truth Social, and Gab. Similarly, the video has been posted from all the accounts simultaneously along with QAnon-conspiracy messages, pro-Trump and anti-Harris content.