Federal Agencies Issue Joint Statement Regarding Election Interference by Foreign Actors

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency have released a statement warning about foreign adversaries conducting influence operations regarding the United States elections, with Russia being the most active. However, Iran and other countries are also very active in the campaign. 

The statement describes the use of manufactured videos and articles designed to undermine the legitimacy of the election, and to instill fears regarding the election process. It also suggests that another goal of this activity is to imply that Americans are already using violence due to political differences. 

Other false claims include that U.S. officials are orchestrating election fraud, especially in swing states. 

Although not explicitly described, the advent of generative AI makes the generation of this misinformation much easier – especially for non-English speaking foreign adversaries, whose previous efforts often had glaring grammar errors that made such misinformation easily identifiable. The use of generative AI makes the output of these influence operations almost flawless and relatively effective. 

The agencies recommend that voters seek out information only from trusted, official sources, and that election infrastructure stakeholders report information regarding suspicious or criminal activity to their local election crime coordinators in the FBI file office or ic3.gov. 

Since our statement on Friday, the IC has been observing foreign adversaries, particularly Russia, conducting additional influence operations intended to undermine public confidence in the integrity of U.S. elections and stoke divisions among Americans. The IC expects these activities will intensify through election day and in the coming weeks, and that foreign influence narratives will focus on swing states.

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