Russian efforts to interfere in the 2024 U.S. presidential election have increasingly targeted the campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris over the past two months, according to a report published by Microsoft on Tuesday.
According to the report, prepared by the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center, these activities involve distributing fabricated videos “designed to sow discord and spread disinformation” about the Harris-Walz campaign, following the July announcement that President Joe Biden would not seek reelection.
“The shift to focusing on the Harris-Walz campaign reflects a strategic move by Russian actors aimed at exploiting any perceived vulnerabilities in the new candidates,” Clint Watts, General Manager of the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center, wrote on September 17.
The Microsoft report detailed two groups “aligned with the Kremlin” that began disseminating fake videos in late August and early September.
One video depicted alleged Harris campaign supporters attacking a Trump rally attendee, while another involved an actor accusing Harris of being involved in a hit-and-run incident. The hit-and-run video was first posted on a fabricated news site disguised as a San Francisco media outlet that only appeared a few days before the video was published and was soon thereafter deleted, although both videos spread across various social media outlets and received millions of views.
