The FBI said it detected two false videos on Tuesday designed to trick people into thinking federal officials warned of a terrorist threat to polling places and that elections were rigged with inmates.
The bureau said one video is a fabricated news clip carrying a fake FBI alert of terrorist activity.
“The fabricated news clip reports falsely that the FBI purportedly stated that Americans should ’vote remotely’ due to a high terror threat at polling stations,” the bureau said in a statement. “This video is not authentic and does not accurately represent the current threat posture or polling location safety.”
The second video displays a fictitious FBI announcement to media about inmates voting.
“A fabricated video containing a fabricated FBI press release alleges that the management of five prisons in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Arizona rigged inmate voting and colluded with a political party,” the FBI said. “This video is also not authentic, and its contents are false.”
The bureau didn’t immediately say where the videos were posted, whether they were viewed or how they were spreading. The FBI also didn’t attribute the forgeries to any adversary.
It’s unclear whether these fakeries and others were having any effect or reaching a large audience before the FBI and its colleagues in the U.S. intelligence community called attention to them.
U.S. intelligence officials have told reporters that they’re not trying to measure the success or failure of foreign influence efforts.
“We don’t make any assessments of the effectiveness of these types of operations because doing so would require us to look at the constitutionally protected speech of American citizens,” an intelligence official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, told reporters in October.
The FBI’s new warning on Election Day follows a separate alert from the bureau, federal cyber officials and the intelligence community on Monday about increased foreign influence activity surrounding the election.
The officials warned that they detected mounting influence operations to stoke division and doubt from foreign adversaries, particularly Russia.
Russia appears to be the source of fake bomb threats to polling locations, according to a separate statement from the FBI on Tuesday.
“The FBI is aware of bomb threats to polling locations in several states, many of which appear to originate from Russian email domains,” the agency said. “None of the threats have been determined to be credible thus far.”
The bureau on Tuesday said it’s working with local law enforcement officials to respond to any threats to elections.
“Election integrity is among our highest priorities, and the FBI is working closely with state and local law enforcement partners to respond to election threats and protect our communities as Americans exercise their right to vote,” the FBI said. “Attempts to deceive the public with false content about FBI threat assessments and activities aim to undermine our democratic process and erode trust in the electoral system.”
• Ryan Lovelace can be reached at rlovelace@washingtontimes.com.
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