Smear campaigns part of Moscow’s attempts to interfere in US election

Tim Walz has become the latest candidate to be caught in the crossfire of Russia’s attempts to interfere in the US presidential elections.

Viral allegations that spread last week against the Minnesota governor and Democratic vice-presidential nominee were created and amplified by Russian operatives, US intelligence agencies confirmed.

Manipulated audio and video of men making baseless claims they were abused by Walz while they were his students ran rampant on social media platforms, including Instagram and X.

They had “several indicators of manipulation that are consistent with the influence efforts and tactics with Russian actors,” according to an official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).

In one of those manipulated videos, a man, who presents himself as Matt Metro, claims to have been a victim of sexual abuse while a student of Walz’s. The Washington Post was able to track down the real Matt Metro, who was a student at the Minnesota school where Walz had taught, but who said the claims were false and that the man in the video was not him.

Euronews verified the authenticity of the video through TrueMedia.org, which confirmed evidence of AI-enabled visual and audio manipulation.

While the posts have by now been flagged as false by online platforms, they raked in millions of views just days ahead of the crunch presidential election on November 5.

It follows similar viral videos claiming Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris had left a woman paralysed in a hit-and-run accident, which was also linked to Russian groups.

Microsoft says notorious Russian operator known as Storm-1516 is responsible for several “outlandish fake conspiracy theories” targeted at both Democratic candidates.

“Russian actors have notably attempted to target the Harris-Walz campaign by attacking the candidates’ characters,” a Microsoft report concludes.

US authorities on the alert

While Russian meddling in the US presidential ballot is not new, experts say they have detected a clear shift in Moscow’s tactics ahead of November’s vote.

“Russia has progressively employed AI to influence electoral results,” according to Abigail Darwish, analyst at the Bloomsbury Intelligence and Security Institute (BISI).

“Election interference has so far targeted particular regions and demographics in America in order to influence and manipulate voter opinions,” she adds, specifying that “AI and influence-for-hire firms” have been used to narrowly target swing state voters.

As well as AI-enabled campaigns intended to discredit candidates, authorities say Mosocw is also engineering campaigns designed to sow doubt over the integrity of the vote.

On Friday, the FBI confirmed Moscow’s hand was also behind a widely-circulated video purporting to show mail-in ballots for Donald Trump being destroyed in Pennsylvania.

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But despite mounting evidence the disinformation is reaching millions of voters, authorities are still confident the vote will be free and fair.

“Malicious actors, even if they tried, could not have an impact at scale such that there would be a material effect on the outcome of the election,” Jen Easterly, the director of the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, told Associated Press.

Iran, China also in Washington’s sights

Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Centre has also signalled Chinese and Iranian actors as major threats ahead of the vote.

Chinese operations have targeted on “down-ballot Republican candidates and members of Congress that advocate for anti-Chinese policies” according to the centre’s analysis.

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US authorities also say China-backed cyber groups have attempted to tap into the phones of Donald Trump and his running mate, JD Vance.

Hackers linked to the Iranian government have also been surveying election-related websites and major media outlets, according to Microsoft. The Trump campaign claimed in August that its internal communications had been hacked by Iranian operatives.