Misinformation, Disinformation, and the US Presidential Elections
By Hiren Pandit
In the US election, a festival of spreading distorted and disinformation as well as satirical content was going on all over the United States. US intelligence agencies have repeatedly warned that this content is spread using artificial intelligence technology. Caution has been repeatedly urged on this matterwarnings issued over artificial intelligence technology in US elections. In a video message on social media X, US foreign policy and national security expert Dr. Heather Asby urged to be more careful in AI-based journalism. Urging diplomatic journalists to be more cautious about using artificial intelligence technology in the US election to spread false information, Asby said that this is a new challenge for journalism and that traditional media should be more careful.
Regarding technology and artificial intelligence use in foreign policy and election reporting, Heather Asby highlights the overuse of fake and distorted information in US elections. FBI warns of counterfeit videos surrounding US election The country’s Federal Bureau of Investigation or FBI warned about two fake videos that suddenly spread online just before the presidential election in the United States. According to the agency, the videos aimed to cast doubt on the US presidential election. The company’s top officials have warned about this many times before. BBC Verify has found evidence that hundreds of fake election-related videos, believed to be of Russian origin, were created in the months leading up to the election.
Incidentally, Russia’s “interference” or similar accusations are widely discussed when the US presidential election comes. In particular, such information was discussed in the 2016 and 2020 elections. Even this time, ahead of the elections, the US organizations are talking about “Russian activity.” Voting for the US presidential election was held on November 5. The country’s former president, Donald Trump, and current vice president, Kamala Harris, competed in this election, and Trump won by a considerable margin. The FBI said two videos on the social media platform X are spreading rumors about ballot fraud and Doug Emhoff, the husband of Democratic candidate Kamala Harris. Those two fake videos look like the FBI made them.
The company’s logo has been added to the video. But it didn’t attract much attention to X, and few people saw it. The videos are not authentic, were not made by the FBI, and are false, the FBI said in a statement. Attempting to deceive people by creating fake content about FBI activities is to create distrust in the electoral process by degrading the democratic process, the statement said. The content of the videos, described by the FBI, was similar to some 300 videos obtained by BBC Verify earlier in the year. The videos were then found as part of a search by an online research firm. The prefix is convincingly presented in the video. These texts seem to be taken from at least fifty news media, including the BBC, France 24 Fox News, and the United States government agencies.
A US official said that the Russians attempted hacking during the 2016 US presidential election. Videos have been posted online almost daily for the past few months, most recently emphasizing the US election. It contains false claims about Miss Harris and messages about chaos and ‘civil war’. CheckFirst, an online analytical company based in Finland, conducted independent research on the network of videos. They found that behind it was a Russian marketing agency and a Russian IP address. “We can link it to Russia, and we know from certain things that a Russian company made it,” said Guillaume Kuster, chief executive of CheckFirst. Another source of evidence is the data set.
By entering it, we find proof that the email was sent from Russia, too. Iran wanted to influence the US election with ChatGPT. OpenAI linked those accounts to a covert Iranian operation called ‘Storm 2035’. OpenAI recently banned several ChatGPT accounts linked to Iran, where they were creating and spreading fake content related to the US presidential election, among other things. The main goal of this work, OpenAI claims, is to use ChatGPT to create counterfeit comments on social media platforms like X and Instagram along with long articles. OpenAI linked those accounts to a secret Iranian organization called Storm 2035, which launched a website masquerading as a political news publisher to influence US voters.
Considering the political context, the operation has produced content on both sides of the US election, the Israel-Hamas war, Israel at the Olympic Games, politics in Venezuela, and ‘Latin rights’ in the United States. OpenAI’s investigation found that the campaign “didn’t show much audience engagement.” The company also adds that most posts it tracks do not have ‘likes, shares or comments.’ In May, OpenAI and Meta announced they had blocked a social media campaign that used AI to post pro-Israel messages on Instagram and Facebook. The technology site Engadget wrote in the report that even though there are still a few months left before the start of the US presidential election; the incidence of such interference may increase.
In the week leading up to the election, former US President Donald Trump confirmed that his election campaign was the victim of a cyber-attack linked to a ‘phishing’ email sent by an Iranian hacker group. In June, the FBI began investigating allegations of cyber-attacks on Trump as well as the Biden-Harris campaign. The accompanying videos were widely circulated on Russian-language Telegram channels. A BBC Verify investigation supports the idea that the style, message, and theme that CheckFirst found with the video matches another program linked to the Kremlin. However, who runs the operation and whether the Russian government funds it is unclear.
The Russian embassy in Washington said in a statement that the allegations against his country of meddling in the election were “baseless.” Any allusion to Russia’s strategy is a slur designed to be used to fight domestic US politics. According to X, the video clip has been viewed millions of times. However, those who posted had few followers, and few people commented. Some ‘bot’ accounts are also understood to be viewing it. The FBI declined to comment. But beyond that, they have recently issued warnings about influential networks with links to Russia. On Friday, three US agencies, the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, commented on a viral video that falsely claimed that a person from Haiti had voted and was created by “people influenced by Russia.”
In the week leading up to the election, intelligence agencies said a video showed election workers destroying mail-in ballots purporting to vote for Donald Trump in Pennsylvania. The agencies say they are created and promoted by the Russians. US intelligence agencies have warned about Russia during the US presidential election. The US Intelligence Community (IC) said Russian disinformation could be the “most active threat” to undermine public confidence in this election. The US National Intelligence, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Cyber Security and Infrastructure Security Agency gave this information in a joint statement before the election. They tell US intelligence agencies are closely monitoring foreign powers in the polls. In particular, the US intelligence agencies are very active in Russia’s activities.
It said the U.S. intelligence community experts warned that Russia could try to operate on Election Day and for a week afterward. They can influence particular swing states. The most active threat to US elections is Russia, the statement said. Influence actors, especially those associated with Moscow, are creating videos and trying to set traps to undermine the legitimacy of the election. By doing so, they are instilling fear among voters about the electoral process and suggesting that Americans are using violence against each other politically. Based on various information, US intelligence thinks so. US intelligence gave such information just a few hours before the final battle of the election. U.S. intelligence agencies alleged that videos circulated online last week attempted to portray false details on vote fraud.
One video shows a Haitian immigrant. It said the immigrant planned to cast multiple votes for Vice President Kamala Harris in Georgia. However, US intelligence said that this information is false. Another video accused Kamla Harris and her husband of being involved in trafficking women. It is said both took a bribe of 500,000 dollars from one person for these works. This information is also misleading and fake, according to US intelligence. US intelligence claims Russian influencers were behind every phony video. The US intelligence community has also alleged that Moscow’s fuel is behind it. Elon Musk has spread false information on X about the US election.
American technology entrepreneur Elon Musk has spread false or misleading information about this year’s US presidential election on social media. His posts have at least 2 billion and 200 million views. A report from the non-profit organization “Center for Countering Digital Hate” has informed this. American tech entrepreneur and billionaire businessman Elon Musk has been accused of spreading misinformation. US government officials and suffrage activists have warned against disinformation in the run-up to this year’s presidential election. He also urged the social media authorities, including X, to remove any wrong information about the election. However, it is alleged that much false information has been spread.
There were even complaints against Elon Musk, the owner of X himself. The Center for Countering Digital Hate released a report on Monday (November 4), just a day before the election. Elon Musk endorsed Republican candidate Donald Trump in the November 5 presidential election. According to the report, Elon Musk has spread false or misleading information about the presidential election on his social media X. According to the report, fact-checkers identified at least 87 of Musk’s posts as false or misleading this year.
In the report, the posts identified as false or misleading by Mask are mainly ‘importing voters’. For example, the number of undocumented immigrants in contested states has risen to a ‘triple-digit’ quota in the last four years, questioning the ‘integrity of the voting process,’ etc. Earlier last week, the same company said that the fact-checking feature in X to challenge false claims about elections is not working. Professor Kathleen Curley says Musk has over 200 million followers on X-Platform. As a result, any of his posts reach users on other platforms like Reddit or Telegram due to the ‘network effect’. That is, X is acting as a connecting medium between different platforms. According to Syabra, a company that detects false information online using artificial intelligence, a fake video was promoted from an X account with 117 thousand followers.
The video shows Trump’s mail-in ballots being destroyed in Pennsylvania. Philip Hensley Robin, executive director of Common Cause, a nonpartisan organization that works on electoral rights, said many X users spread rumors of vote fraud. However, election authorities and officials nationwide have worked diligently to ensure that only legitimate voters can participate. Voting and counting Voting is not compulsory in the United States. Although voting can be done by mail or post, the country has no online voting system. As in our country, specific polling stations are allotted to each voter in different states. These centers are usually located in public buildings, such as convention centers, libraries, schools, or community centers.
Voters go to secret booths in these centers and fill ballots. Even in the US, most voters use ‘hand-fill’ paper ballots. Generally, voters fill in the circles or squares next to the candidate’s name. According to data from Philadelphia-based nonprofit Verified Voting, about 70 percent of registered voters live in areas where hand-marked paper ballots are used. In addition to paper ballots, some voters also vote with digital devices. Some areas have provisions for voters to vote on digital devices. This device is called Ballot Marking Device or BMD. A paper print emerges after the voters vote, which is put into the ballot box. Twenty-five percent of US voters voted for such a measure. According to the American Council of State Governments website, another method of voting in elections is the recording electronic voting system. In 2020, voters in the US states of Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas voted using direct recording electronic voting systems. In this system, voters press buttons or use a touchscreen.
Their votes are recorded directly in the computer system. Some recording electronic voting systems are connected to a printer. The voter can check whether his vote is correct after voting. It creates a paper record of each vote. Once a record is created, it cannot be changed. Five percent of US voters cast their ballots using recording electronic voting systems. Meanwhile, the issue of showing ID while voting also varies from state to state in the United States. For example, 35 states require voters to show a valid ID. Of these, 25 states make it mandatory to show photo ID. However, a driver’s license or passport is usually acceptable. Again, in 15 states, no ID is required to vote. For example, in Nevada, voters are not required to bring ID.
Just go to the polling station and sign the name. That signature matches the signature and ID provided during voter registration. However, in some states, ID is generally not required. Voters may be required to show ID when voting for the first time or if ID is not provided during registration. How votes are counted as mentioned earlier, the electoral system in the United States is not centrally managed. Just as the Federal Election Commission has nothing to do with polling, neither does counting votes. Paper ballots filled out by hand and cast with ballot marking devices are usually counted with an optical scanner. The final result is then created digitally. Procedures for recounting votes and verifying results vary from state to state. States have to confirm their election results by December 11. However, results are usually released within hours of polling.
The author is a Dhaka-based Essayist & Commentator
Views are personal and IAR neither endorses nor is responsible for them.
