Russia Escalates Effort to Subvert Election and ‘Instill Fear in Voters,’ U.S. Says; The New York Times, November 4, 2024

 Julian E. Barnes and Steven Lee Myers, The New York Times; Russia Escalates Effort to Subvert Election and ‘Instill Fear in Voters,’ U.S. Says

"Russian groups and other foreign adversaries have unleashed an extensive disinformation campaign to undermine confidence in the election, and senior U.S. officials are worried that Moscow’s efforts could continue to stoke political discord until the election is certified in January...

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the F.B.I. said in a joint statement that foreign adversaries led by Russia were “conducting additional influence operations intended to undermine public confidence in the integrity of U.S. elections and stoke divisions among Americans.”

In recent weeks, the intelligence agencies have dramatically stepped up their alerts. Two weeks ago, they warned of post-election violence. Over the last 10 days, they have now issued three warnings about Russian attempts to undermine faith in the election. And Jen Easterly, the director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said her organization would give regular updates Tuesday to inform the public of threats to the election."

US conservative influencers say they are ‘victims’ of Russian disinformation campaign; The Guardian, September 4, 2024

Guardian staff and agencies , The Guardian; US conservative influencers say they are ‘victims’ of Russian disinformation campaign

"A number of high-profile, conservative influencers in the US have said they are “victims” of an alleged Russian disinformation campaign, after the Biden administration accused Moscow of carrying out a sustained campaign to influence the outcome of November’s presidential elections.

Tim Pool, Dave Rubin and Benny Johnson published statements on Wednesday evening addressing allegations that a US content creation company they were associated with had been provided with nearly $10m from Russian state media employees to publish videos with messages in favour of Moscow’s interests and agenda, including over the war in Ukraine...

“The company never disclosed to the influencers – or to their millions of followers – its ties to [Russian state media company] RT and the Russian government,” US attorney general Merrick Garland said. His department described Wednesday’s indictment as the most sweeping effort yet to push back against what it says are Russian attempts to spread disinformation ahead of the November presidential election."

DOJ outlines Russia’s disinformation campaigns designed to interfere with U.S. election; PBS News, September 4, 2024

Amna Nawaz, Kyle Midura , PBS News; DOJ outlines Russia’s disinformation campaigns designed to interfere with U.S. election

"Attorney General Merrick Garland outlined sophisticated disinformation campaigns undertaken by Russia to interfere with the U.S. presidential election. He warned that Russia is pumping lies into the U.S. via fake news outlets and real social media influencers. Amna Nawaz discussed more with National Security Council spokesman John Kirby."

Digital Threats On 2020 Elections; Texas Public Radio, January 11, 2020

Michel Martin, Texas Public Radio; Digital Threats On 2020 Elections

"Siva Vaidhyanathan has been writing about these concerns. He is a professor of media studies at the University of Virginia. We spoke earlier about why he thinks digital democracy will face its greatest test in 2020."

"MARTIN: Do you have a sense of, you know, based on your research and that of others, whether there is some throughline to these groups that are engaging in these disinformation campaigns around the world? Like, what's their end goal? Do we - is there, say, a single source or a few sources - is there anything - you know, what do we know?

VAIDHYANATHAN: There doesn't seem to be a single source, but there seems to be thematic coherence. In other words, if there is an extreme authoritarian political force in the Philippines - and there is - and there's an extreme authoritarian political force in Ukraine - let's say trying to be imposed from across the border in Russia - those forces are going to learn from each other. It's very easy to mimic the strategy of another one. So what it means is if you're of that ilk, if you want to disrupt democracy and undermine any form of governance that might support the rule of law and limit corruption, et cetera, you are going to try to flood the political sphere with nonsense, with stuff that will divide society, stuff that will turn people against each other, especially against minorities or against immigrants."