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China United States Politics

Foreign Disinformation Is Hitting the US Election From All Directions (apnews.com) 71

Posted by BeauHD from the two-weeks-left dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Wired: As November 5 draws closer, the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC) warned on Wednesday that malicious foreign influence operations launched by Russia, China, and Iran against the US presidential election are continuing to evolve and should not be ignored even though they have come to feel inevitable. In the group's fifth report, researchers emphasize the range of ongoing activities (source may be paywalled; alternative source) as well as the inevitability that attackers will work to stoke doubts about the integrity of the election in its aftermath.

In spite of escalating conflict in the Middle East, Microsoft says that Iran has been able to keep up its operations targeting the US election, particularly targeting the Trump campaign and attempting to foment anti-Israel sentiment. Russian actors, meanwhile, have been focused on targeting the Harris campaign with character attacks and AI-generated content, including deepfakes. And China has shifted its focus in recent weeks, researchers say, to target down-ballot Republican candidates as well as sitting members of Congress who promote policies adversarial to China or in conflict with its interests.

Crucially, MTAC says it is all but certain that these actors will attempt to stoke division and mistrust in vote security on Election Day and in its immediate aftermath. "As MTAC observed during the 2020 presidential cycle, foreign adversaries will amplify claims of election rigging, voter fraud, or other election integrity issues to sow chaos among the US electorate and undermine international confidence in US political stability," the researchers wrote in their report. As the 2024 campaign season enters its final phase, the researchers say that they expect to see AI-generated media continuing to show up in new campaigns, particularly because content can spread so rapidly in the charged period immediately around Election Day. The report also notes that Microsoft has detected Iranian actors probing election-related websites and media outlets, "suggesting preparations for more direct influence operations as Election Day nears." "History has shown that the ability of foreign actors to rapidly distribute deceptive content can significantly impact public perception and electoral outcomes," wrote MTAC general manager Clint Watts. "With a particular focus on the 48 hours before and after Election Day, voters, government institutions, candidates and parties must remain vigilant to deceptive and suspicious activity online."

Foreign Disinformation Is Hitting the US Election From All Directions More | Reply

Foreign Disinformation Is Hitting the US Election From All Directions

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  • Is that we're a very very stupid people. It's not clear to me that we're going to keep this federal democratic republic. Aspects of each three of those words are under attack by some group.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cusco ( 717999 )

      It's amusing that everyone is pretending that this is an anomaly. The US just spent tens of millions to manipulate the election in tiny little Moldova, and only the locals are complaining. Every country that can afford to tries to affect the elections of every other country in which it has even a peripheral interest. IIRC the biggest spenders in the 2020 election were Israel and Saudi Arabia, which will probably be the case again this year.

      • The stakes are a bit higher when it's between nuclear superpowers.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by cusco ( 717999 )

          Russia has an economy about the size of Mexico and a population only about 10% larger, is Mexico also a "superpower"? Yes, they have nukes, and yes, they're the second largest arms exporter after the US, but that hardly makes them a "superpower".

  • How weak does someone have to be to allow misinformation to sway their vote? Are people really so willing to accept what other say? I will vote based upon my own internal value system .... and hopefully Make America Great Again.
    • Depends what you value. If you just want the stock market gains, maybe Trump gets you that. If you want to be proud to be an American, it's got to be Harris.

      • >>If you just want the stock market gains

        If you have been invested in the stock market for the past 4 years you have done quite well. The S&P 500 is up more than 40%.

      • The tariffs he's planning to do will crash the economy for variety of reasons. Remember the Great depression was exasperated by drought and Wall Street deregulation but the biggest cause was extremely high terrace and an ugly trade war

        Experts estimate the average American will lose $4,000 a year under a Trump presidency. If you're still undecided ask yourself if you can afford to spend $4,000 a year electing Trump. With the answer is no then at least sit this one out

        • The same tariffs Harris left in place and then doubled down on as the economy continued to grow?

          Those tariffs?

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by bjwest ( 14070 )

            The same tariffs Harris left in place and then doubled down on as the economy continued to grow?

            Those tariffs?

            Sorry to burst your bubble, but Harris is Vice President, and has little to absolute zero direct control over policy.

            • If Harris wasn't running the country then who was? It sure as Hell wasn't Joe. He can barely pick an ice cream flavor.

              And who is running it now? Joe is unfit to run but is fit to hold office now? She stabbed him in the back because he demonstrated at a live public debate he is not fit and hasn't been for a long time. He didn't suddenly go senile that morning. My favorite line as when Joe said it wasn't a problem when illegals rape children because their own family would have raped them anyway. That i

      • The stock market is due to start declining again. It's likely that will happen next year no matter who wins the election.

      • I drove through a few of the more red areas of Florida to pick up some equipment for work yesterday. Saw a billboard with Trump promising cheaper groceries. Because the president obviously has a button on his desk to do that (it's right next to the ones for raising and lowering gas prices, duh!)

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by cusco ( 717999 )

        Harris? You're going to be proud of someone who has promised to continue using our tax dollars to arm and fund a genocide? Sorry, but that's messed up.

        The whole world is looking on our election utterly appalled. The only two candidates who have a chance at the Oval Office both openly agree that the US government should be helping one of its proxy forces to slaughter 2 1/2 million civilians, and tens of millions of people are going to vote for them knowing that. How did we get to this state?

        I'm ashamed o

        • Can't disagree that things in the world are pretty screwed up right now. Ukraine vs Russia has a pretty clear good/evil division..... Israel is more complicated. But we already know what Trump is, and I don't like it. I have to hope the alternative is better.

        • Re: Weakness (Score:4, Insightful)

          by iAmWaySmarterThanYou ( 10095012 ) on Thursday October 24, 2024 @01:11AM (#64889377)

          Oh boy... are you one of those people who also talked about carpet bombing? When Israel doesn't have a single bomber since the early 70s? Not one.

          Hey maybe if we hadn't sent billions of tax dollars to a terrorist group like Hamas who spent it on weapons and tunnels while leaving their own people starving and without infrastructure then they might have a real country today instead of being a third world terrorist haven shit hole.

          The genocide is Hamas, a proxy army of Iran, oppressing the Gazans and literally gunning down their political opposition in the streets in broad daylight light just before their fake election almost 20 years ago followed by no elections since.

          These are the people you side with against the only democracy in the Middle East. These Jewish state which has Arabs elected to their parliament. How many Jews are elected to office anywhere else in the Middle East? Mph that's right none because no one else holds elections and all the Jews got ethnically cleansed generations ago anyway.

          Yes, there are people here who know real history and current facts who will call you out on your bullshit.

          Feel free to use a sock puppet to mod me down. That won't change the facts.

        • "The whole world is looking on our election utterly appalled."

          Yet they're all coming here legally and otherwise, and even those who are here and hate the country still refuse to leave.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by cusco ( 717999 )

            The reality is that really almost no one is trying to come to the Untied States, almost everyone stays in the country where they were born, where their families are, where they have roots. And many of the people who do come here make their money and then go home. You should get to know people in other countries, they're not actually what the stereotypes portray.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by sosume ( 680416 )

          Enlighten me. Has Hamas returned the hostages yet?

      • No, want borders to be borders, want the asses of those that crossed them illegally booted back where they came from, want no EV mandates, want cheap gas, want no new wars, want (to stay) out of the old ones, want 1st amendment respected, want 2nd amendment respected, want entire constitution respected, want police respected, want supreme court justices that respect the Constitution, want electoral college respected, want to keep men out of women's sports, want voter ID, want jobs to stay in America, want j

        • > borders to be borders, want the asses of those that crossed them illegally booted back where they came from Then perhaps Trump shouldn't have sunk the border bill. > want no EV mandates Eh, they'll win eventually either way. That's more of a state thing anyway. > want cheap gas President has very little control over this > want no new wars Everyone agrees > want (to stay) out of the old ones Ukraine has to win. That is essential. But we should be behind the scenes. > want 1st a
    • Was that sarcasm? Maybe that was sarcasm.

      Propaganda works on everyone, no matter how "strong" they are. If you hear something often enough, in enough different ways from enough different people, you will start to believe that it contains some nugget of truth. This is universal. We all learn from the people around us, social learning is just part of the human experience. Anyone who hadn't learned that way wouldn't be able to read this comment.

    • Cambridge Analytica has shown us they are able to target people that are easy to sway with ads that will sway them. In the US, nothing was done to fix the fact that data brokers collect this information and are allowed to buy and sell it to anyone they want, including foreign adversaries. How can you be sure you aren't swayed by them? You can't. They know your "internal value system" and can craft a message that targets it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sosume ( 680416 )

      It's only misinformation if it's not explitic pro-Kamalala

  • "Russian actors, meanwhile, have been focused on targeting the Harris campaign with character attacks and AI-generated content, including deepfakes."

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by cusco ( 717999 )

      This seems doubtful, the AI-generated content and deepfakes that I've seen are amateurish at best, more like the product of some MAGA idiots with too much time on their hands than psy-ops professionals.

  • Election Integrity FUD is fixable (Score:4, Insightful)

    by billyswong ( 1858858 ) on Wednesday October 23, 2024 @11:57PM (#64889285)
    Your foreign enemies obviously will try to undermine the fairness confidence of your election. But it is totally solvable if USA is willing to fix their own part. Replace postal voting with more voting stations including some of them setup in embassies overseas. Give up voting machines and do all the voting and counting by hands instead. You have to count postal votes by hands already so the infrastructure is there.
    • No aspect of what you've said here would address the problem that the article is discussing.
      • What I wrote can't fight against deepfakes, but they can reduce the vulnerability of US election being called "rigged" or "fraud". Oh and also please make the voter ID law enacted across all states. Deepfakes may be able to push people to vote or not vote some candidates, but they can't degrade the confidence in election fairness by themselves if your election procedure is good enough.

    • US voting machines produce a paper record of the votes, and the voter can review it before submitting it.

  • The mainstream media is pure, far-left propaganda.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by cusco ( 717999 )

      The mainstream media is pure center-right propaganda by the standards of the rest of the world. The US is so awash in conservative and neo-con brainwashing that almost no one here knows what actual 'left' looks like.

      • The standards of the rest of the world aren't terribly relevant when it comes to an American election. In fact, it is precisely the rest of the world attempting to manipulate election outcomes in the United States that is the topic of this submission.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by cusco ( 717999 )

          I was replying to the poster, not commenting on the topic of this submission. Not sure how you didn't figure that part out.

          And freaking EVERYONE who can afford to is attempting to manipulate the election outcome. I'm sure Brasil, Nigeria and Mexico (which incidentally has an economy about the same size as Russia) are all trying to get their opinion registered with the candidates.

  • If the West continues to treat foreign actors trying to destabilize its societies through malicious exploitation of their internal freedoms as mere ah-well-what-can-you-do behavior, it's going to either loose its freedom or its social order, probably both.

    There needs to be a cost imposed on the external actors, and it needs to be sufficient to dissuade them from continuing.

  • Let's talk about Domestic Disinformation. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    So all the fucking BULLSHIT and fearmongering coming out of the current administration and the media that has inspired lots of dangerous and violent idiots.

  • "Russian meddling" was created by Hillary Clinton. She paid for the false "Steele dossier", and every accusation against Russia and every allegation against Trump revolved around that hoax. We have recently seen reincarnations of such allegations, but they really shouldn't bother us much until Ivan from the FSB shows up at our door and offers us cash. We shouldn't trust the Microsoft Threat Assessment Center to warn us about disinformation from anywhere since none of us are getting any such disinformation.

  • The problem is not "disinformation" its no reliable information. So people can believe whatever they want to believe. And its impossible to have an adult discussion with the media megaphones demanding our attention and drowning out any civil discussion. Frankly, the complaints about foreign "interference" are just more noise.

    All sorts of people are trying to effect the outcome of our election. Most of them in ways that are patently dishonest. Apparenlty some group is running ads in Pennsylvania praising Ha

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