Viral video of ripped-up Pennsylvania ballots is fake and Russian-made, intelligence agencies say
Russian actors "manufactured and amplified" a viral video that falsely showed a person tearing up ballots in Pennsylvania, the FBI and two other federal agencies said Friday.
Russian actors "manufactured and amplified" a recent viral video that falsely showed a person tearing up ballots in Pennsylvania, the FBI and two other federal agencies said Friday.
The FBI and officials from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said the U.S. intelligence community made the assessment based on available information and past activities from other Russian influence actors, including videos and disinformation efforts.
"This Russian activity is part of Moscow’s broader effort to raise unfounded questions about the integrity of the US election and stoke divisions among Americans," the agencies said in a statement. "In the lead up to election day and in the weeks and months after, the [intelligence community] expects Russia to create and release additional media content that seeks to undermine trust in the integrity of the election and divide Americans.”
Poll workers demonstrate how ballots are received, processed, scanned, and securely stored on Election Day at the Philadelphia Election Warehouse during a press tour by the Philadelphia City Commissioners, in Philadelphia, on Oct. 25, 2024.Matthew Hatcher / Getty ImagesThe video's circulation was swift. Within hours, it had attracted hundreds of thousands of views from a single post on X. In the video, a person is seen destroying what are purported to be filled-out ballots in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office and Yardley Borough Police Department and said in a joint statement Thursday that they conducted a review and had deemed the video “fabricated.”
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