Microsoft says Russian troll farms are focusing on the Harris-Walz marketing campaign

Kremlin-affiliated Russian troll farms are working disinformation campaigns that goal to intrude with this yr’s US presidential elections, and in response to Microsoft, they’re focusing their efforts on discrediting Kamala Harris and Tim Walz. The corporate has published a new report detailing the actions of two troll farms being monitored by the Microsoft Risk Evaluation Heart.

These Kremlin-backed actors apparently struggled to search out the suitable strategy shortly after President Biden stepped down as a candidate, however in late August and early September, one among them began circulating inauthentic movies that managed to generate tens of millions of views. One video depicted a supposed assault by Harris supporters on Trump rally attendees. One other video used an actor to accuse Harris of being concerned in a 2011 hit-and-run incident that paralyzed a 13-year-old woman. The second video, which went viral, was launched by a days-old web site pretending to be a San Francisco primarily based media outlet.

In the meantime, the second troll farm stopped producing content material in regards to the 2024 Paris Olympics video games and began creating movies exhibiting Harris in a foul mild. One faux video confirmed a New York Metropolis billboard claiming that Harris wants to change children’s gender. It was initially printed on Telegram, earlier than being shared on X and getting greater than 100,000 views inside just some hours.

Microsoft warned that folks ought to count on extra Russian-made disinformation supplies, together with extra staged and AI-edited movies, to flow into on-line as we get nearer to the election. Earlier this month, the US authorities indicted two workers of Russian state media outlet RT, accusing them of planning to pay a Tennessee firm $10 million to unfold 2,000 propaganda movies on social media. The Treasury Division additionally sanctioned ANO Dialog, a Russian nonprofit that was allegedly concerned with a marketing campaign referred to as “Doppelganger,” to create faux web sites that would seem to American readers as official main information websites. Microsoft mentioned in its new report that it suspended greater than 20 accounts linked to ANO Dialog.

Meta additionally not too long ago banned RT and different Russian state media shops “for international interference exercise.” In keeping with its notes, which the corporate shared with Engadget, it had seen Russian state-controlled media attempt to intrude with international governments and to evade detection previously. It mentioned that it expects them to maintain attempting to “have interaction in misleading affect makes an attempt throughout the web.”

It isn’t simply Russia that is attempting to affect the end result of this yr’s US presidential elections, although. Microsoft, Google and even the feds printed reviews again in August that Iranian hackers had been attempting to spear-phish several advisers of the Biden-Harris and Trump campaigns. Microsoft additionally found campaigns made to sway votes within the US by teams linked with the Iranian authorities. One such group created an internet site that assaults and insults former President Donald Trump.

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