Authorities flagged several instances of false information attempting — and in some cases, briefly succeeding — to disrupt Election Day. The FBI warned in a press release that false election information was being spread misusing the agency’s name and insignia. The instances involved a fabricated video of a fake news clip and a fake FBI press release, reports Scripps News. “The fabricated news clip reports falsely that the FBI purportedly stated that Americans should ‘vote remotely’ due to a high terror threat at polling stations,” the FBI said. The agency said the inauthentic video did not “accurately represent the current threat posture or polling location safety.”
In a second case of false election information, the FBI said “a fabricated video containing a fabricated FBI press release alleges that the management of five prisons in swing states Pennsylvania, Arizona and Georgia rigged inmate voting and colluded with a political party.” The FBI did not say where the fake content originated.
In Georgia, false information briefly disrupted polling sites where fake bomb threats were also flagged by authorities. Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said he was aware of “some threats that were of Russian origin,” adding that officials didn’t think they were “viable.” The hoax bomb threats were sent to polling locations in two Georgia counties, Fulton and Clayton. A Georgia election official said local police evacuated these locations to do a sweep. Several more non-credible bomb threats were sent to polling sites in other states, like Arizona, with many sent from email domains that originated in Russia. "Russia is the most active threat,” the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the office of the Director of National Intelligence and the FBI said in a pre-Election Day statement.
Comments