[20] The leaders of intelligence agencies noted that Russia is spreading disinformation through fake social media accounts in order to divide American society and foster anti-Americanism.
[22][23] In February and August 2020, United States Intelligence Community (USIC) experts warned members of Congress that Russia was interfering in the 2020 presidential election in then-President Donald Trump's favor.
[30] In September 2023, a declassified intelligence report identified a top aide to Putin hiring three contractors to conduct an online disinformation campaign to reduce western support for Ukraine.
It sought to use hundreds of fake online accounts and eighteen seemingly apolitical "sleeper groups" across six swing states that would wait until the right moment to distribute bogus news stories.
Officials have assessed that Russia is attempting to fool unwitting Americans into spreading its messages and is imitating websites of established media and using human commentators to increase traffic towards those sites, which have content generated by artificial intelligence.
[6] In late October, 2024, it was reported that Russia was using Reddit and far right forums to target potential Trump supporters in swing states, focusing on Hispanic voters and the gaming community.
[34] In August 2024, the Federal Bureau of Investigation raided the homes of former United Nations weapons inspector Scott Ritter and political advisor Dimitri Simes for their connections to Russian state media.
[36][37][38] On September 4, 2024, the United States publicly accused Russia of interfering in the 2024 election and announced several steps to combat Russian influence including sanctions, indictments, and seizing of Doppelganger-linked web domains used to spread propaganda and disinformation.
[45] On September 17, Microsoft reported that Russian operatives had intensified attacks against Kamala Harris by creating videos highlighting "outlandish conspiracy theories" aimed at stoking racial and political divisions.
[6][46][47][48] On September 23, Reuters cited a US Intelligence official saying that of the foreign adversaries, Russia was creating the most AI content to influence the 2024 election and improve Donald Trump's chances of winning.
"[48] By October, state-run media campaigns by Russia had spread false conspiracy theories about the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season that The Associated Press described as using "social media and state news stories to criticize responses to past U.S. natural disasters" and sow division among Americans,[50] including the spread of AI-generated images of flooding damage at Cinderella Castle at Walt Disney World, among other images.
[54] Two days later, the Washington Post reported that John Mark Dugan, a former deputy sheriff of Palm Beach County, has been paid by the GRU to produce misinformation attacking the Harris campaign.
[55] On October 25, the U.S. Intelligence Community assessed that Russia had made a fake, viral video of mail-in ballots for Trump being ripped up and burned in Pennsylvania.
[57] On November 4, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), FBI, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) issued a joint statement that Russian "influence actors" were creating and circulating material "intended to undermine public confidence in the integrity of U.S. elections and stoke divisions among Americans", focusing their efforts on swing states.
[58] On November 5, during the official Election Day, several non-credible bomb threats that originated from Russia briefly disrupted voting in two polling places in Fulton County, Georgia.