ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:
All year, we've been talking about foreign countries trying to swing the U.S. election. And in these final days of voting, American officials have called out Russia for circulating several fake videos targeting U.S. voters. NPR's Shannon Bond is following this. Hi, Shannon.
SHANNON BOND, BYLINE: Hi, Ari.
SHAPIRO: What do these fake videos show?
BOND: Yeah. So we've seen just in the past two weeks at least three of them spread on social media that these officials and researchers have flagged as fakes. And look, these are pretty clumsy videos. There are some obvious signs they aren't real, but that didn't stop many people from sharing them.
So most recently, there was a video posted to X on Thursday of a man who said he was a Haitian immigrant who was voting multiple times in Georgia. Just days before, there was a different video claiming to show someone ripping up ballots marked for former President Trump in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, another swing state. And there was also another fake video making baseless claims against Tim Walz, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee.
And look, Ari. These Georgia and Pennsylvania videos - they were quickly debunked by state and local officials. And then we've had federal intelligence officials and the FBI come out and say all three videos were likely made by Russia. They say it's part of what they describe as the Kremlin's efforts to sow division among Americans and undermine confidence, ultimately, in this election.
SHAPIRO: And how similar or different is this from what we saw Russia attempt in the 2016 and 2020 elections?
BOND: Yeah. Experts say that Russia is much more active this year, right? So they're just doing more. And in some ways, these efforts are more sophisticated. So if you remember back to 2016, the Internet Research Agency, that infamous Russian troll farm - right? - they made fake accounts on social media posing as Americans, right? And they pushed out these fake stories about Hillary Clinton.
Now, researchers believe these fake videos that we've been talking about are actually being produced by a group that's a successor to the Internet Research Agency. They stage these fake videos, but then they're laundering them, in many cases, through influencers. And then we're seeing them get picked up and shared by actual Americans. So, you know, these are not being spread by fake accounts. I spoke with Darren Linvill, who leads a team at Clemson University, which first identified this operation.
DARREN LINVILL: They've put effort into building the network. They put effort into, you know, making these connections with real humans. But it is also true that people are now primed for - I mean, you can't separate these things. The Russians changed their tactics to conform to the changes in our reality.
BOND: And what Linvill is talking about here is this idea, you know, many Americans have become much more receptive to these claims that, you know, something fishy is going on, there's something wrong with elections, which have come after so many years of Donald Trump's attacks on election integrity. And now we see Russia really capitalizing on that.
SHAPIRO: Is it only Russia, or have other countries also been trying to influence this election?
BOND: Right. Well, Russia is the most prolific, but intelligence officials have also called out Iran and China as really active threats trying to reach American voters. And what's common among all three of these countries - which have different aims - but what's common among their tactics this year is this focus on divisive issues, you know, that are trying to exacerbate existing fractures in American society. You know, they're targeting specific groups of people. They're seizing on narratives, for example, about immigration - like we saw in that video from Russia - about abortion, the war in Gaza and now, as voting comes to an end, the integrity of American elections.
And look. This is just not going to end when polls close tomorrow. If, as we expect, it takes time to determine a winner, intelligence officials are warning that these adversaries will likely keep doing this through the post-election period.
SHAPIRO: That is NPR's Shannon Bond, who will keep following this throughout the post-election period. Shannon, thank you for your reporting.
BOND: Thanks, Ari.
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