Top U.S. intelligence officials say Russia, China and Iran are continuing to target voters in the U.S. with disinformation and propaganda related to the upcoming presidential election.

The Kremlin is turning to unwitting Americans and commercial public relations firms in Russia to spread disinformation about the U.S. presidential race, top intelligence officials said Monday, detailing the latest efforts by America’s adversaries to shape public opinion ahead of the 2024 election.

The warning comes after a tumultuous few weeks in U.S. politics that have forced Russia, Iran and China to revise some of the details of their propaganda playbook. What hasn’t changed, intelligence officials said, is the determination of these nations to seed the internet with false and incendiary claims about American democracy to undermine faith in the election.

“The American public should know that content that they read online — especially on social media — could be foreign propaganda, even if it appears to be coming from fellow Americans or originating in the United States,” said an official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity under rules set by the office of the director.

Russia continues to pose the greatest threat when it comes to election disinformation, authorities said, while there are indications that Iran is expanding its efforts and China is proceeding cautiously when it comes to 2024.

  • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
    01·
    3 months ago

    I’m mostly talking about people like @[email protected] , who outted themselves in this thread, and others that I’ll not list because they haven’t engaged. But also, yes, its very very very reasonable to think that Russia would focus and define its propaganda to specific people in positions of power such that the outcomes are in Russia’s interest.

    Propaganda isn’t flyers falling from the sky; its a carefully cultivated resources at a major media outlet advocating that “We can’t replace Joe Biden as candidate”. Its creating a media landscape around one specific individual such that you control the reality they think they live in.

    I (or you or anyone else) can literally buy ads that follow a person around the internet where ever they go to purchase a specific product. Why couldn’t I do the same around a media narrative? If you were a state-level campaign working to engineer specific outcomes, don’t you think you would take advantage of tools like that?