Disinformation updates: pre-election madness
Storm-1516 campaigns
These campaigns were originally discovered by Darren Linvill from Clemson University Media Forensics Hub.
(fake) video depicting mail-in ballots with votes for Donald Trump being torn
A tweet with video was published by TheWakeninq X/Twitter account on October 24. This account also participated in prior Storm-1516 campaigns.
Later, original tweet was deleted and TheWakeninq posted a comment: “This video was just deleted after being debunked as fake.” quoting a tweet by Scott Presler, which mentions the ongoing investigation by FBI.
The Bucks county Board of Elections and Bucks County GOP were swift to issue the statements confirming fake nature of this video.
ODNI, FBI, and CISA issued a joint statement on October 25, which attributes this campaign to “Russian actors”.
(fake) Harris and Emhoff received $500K for warning “Diddy” about upcoming police raids
Story was discovered by Darren Linvill even prior to distribution campaign.
Materials were published on patriotvoicenews[.]com website on October 30.
(fake) Haitian immigrants voting illegally in Georgia shortly after arriving in U.S.
Story includes a video depicting individuals claiming to be from Haiti and voting illegally in multiple counties in Georgia.
Earliest known publication was made by Alphafox78 X/Twitter account, which belongs to sunfluencer X organisation. Sunfluencer accounts were spreading prior Storm-1516 campaigns.
Alphafox78 also shared a number of prior Storm-1516 campaigns: [1] [2] [3]
Georgia Secretary of State, Brad Raffensperger, issued a statement on October 31 suggesting the false nature of this video.
ODNI, FBI, and CISA issued a joint statement on November 1, which attributes this campaign to “Russian actors”.
fondfbr campaigns
(fake) Democrats and US intelligence agencies are preparing mass killings of the leaders of the MAGA movement immediately after the Presidential election
Cited as “expert”: Tara Reade
(fake) The Biden-Harris administration is plotting a massive voter fraud scheme for the U.S. presidential election
Cited as “experts”: Öpik Lembit and Chay Bowes
On the sidelines
John Mark Dougan relations with GRU exposed
Connection between John Dougan activities and several GRU officers was exposed recent publication by The Washington Post, which is based on documents by unnamed European intelligence service. It also supports deep involvement of John Dougan in Storm-1516 operations.
“Black Insurrectionist” unmasked
Associated Press was able to establish the real identity behind “Black Insurrectionist” X/Twitter account, which was central in one of the episodes of the recent disinformation campaign against Tim Walz.
Few days after the publication, “Black Insurrectionist” account was re-activated in attempt to refute the story, mainly in attempt to deny that Jason Palmer is the person behind account, but confirming his involvement to some degree. Shortly after, account was deactivated again.
fondfbr and storm-1516 interconnections
Publication by CNN and Clemson University’s Media Forensics Hub supports our suggestions of very close ties between fondfbr and storm-1516 operations.
Chay Bowes and Alexander Malkevich visited Georgia during parliamentary election
https://x.com/BowesChay/status/1852050320932901328
Reporters Without Borders noted that Alexander Malkevich was in Georgia around the same time. He was previously involved in IRA (Prigozhin troll farm) activities. He is sanctioned and wanted by U.S. government.
New Storm-1516 distribution channel: comment sections
Publication by WIRED and NewsGuard suggests that Storm-1516 operators might be using comments sections in right wing media outlets as a yet another distribution channel for their narratives.