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.

  • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
    322·
    4 months ago

    For me it’s usually the irrationality of the arguments. Like they don’t even really believe what they’re saying, they’re just kind of writing these disagreeable nonsense-messages and then moving on. It’s hard to explain but the stuff about calculators is a perfect example. Real humans don’t say stuff like that, and even organic trolls will usually invest some effort into their discourse. The lazy and illogical shit-commenting seems to be frequently a sign of someone who’s doing political propaganda. They genuinely just don’t even seem to give a shit if you believe them or not.

    More than once I’ve had someone make some kind of leap of moon logic like that, when we’re not even talking about US politics, and clicked on their user to see what the heck their deal even is and found a bunch of “why not to vote for the Democrats” stuff and ohhhhh it all makes sense now, got it.

    • BassTurd@lemmy.world
      81·
      4 months ago

      I went back and forth with someone that was totally a democratic but every single post was anti Biden. I asked them to literally say anything bad about, and they wouldn’t make a single statement. I said to just write a fact, like that he’s a felon, but that was too much. Maybe this person was just really stubborn, but I find it hard to believe that anyone that’s against Trump wouldn’t put in the minimal effort to show that they do in fact not like him. Most people I think have seen that user around if you spend any time in politics, but I haven’t since then so that’s nice I guess.