Microsoft said Russians made a viral video falsely accusing Vice President Harris of a hit-and-run.
Per a Tuesday report from the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC), Russians recently “produced and disseminated two inauthentic videos designed to discredit Harris and stoke controversy around her campaign.” One of the videos “used an on-screen actor to fabricate false claims that Harris paralyzed a girl in a 2011 hit-and-run accident,” according to the report.
MTAC said in the report that the videos were from a “prolific Russian actor” named Storm-1516.
“Russian influence operations initially struggled to pivot operations aimed at the Democratic campaign following President Biden’s departure from the US 2024 presidential race,” the report reads. “In late August, however, elements of prolific Russian actor Storm-1516 began producing content implicating Vice President Harris and Governor Walz in outlandish fake conspiracy theories.”
A blog post from Clint Watts, MTAC’s general manager, also said both of the videos got “millions of views.”
“As we inch closer to the election, we should expect Russian actors to continue to use cyber proxies and hacktivist groups to amplify their messages through media websites and social channels geared to spread divisive political content, staged videos, and AI-enhanced propaganda,” Watts’s post reads.
Earlier this month, the Biden administration condemned Russian efforts to influence this year’s election while the Justice Department announced it had seized more than 30 web domains used by Russia for covert campaigns. An indictment also accused two employees of a Russian state media outlet of partnering with a conservative-leaning media outlet to assist in sowing division in the U.S.
The Hill has reached out to the Russian government and the Harris campaign for comment.