This content was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission.
The United States expects Russia, Iran, and China to continue their attempts to influence the November 5 elections by using artificial intelligence to disseminate fake information, according to a , report , released on October 2 by the Department of Homeland Security ( DHS).
The department anticipates that the three countries will pose the most immediate international risks to US-critical infrastructure.
Next week, the Justice Department provided examples of how Russia was behind a fabricated San Francisco television station that spread falsehoods about Kamala Harris, the Democrat party’s nominee for president.
The false station used players to make a fake broadcast about Harris ‘ involvement in an unsolved collision. Before the FBI and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence revealed to reporters that Russian “influence players” were responsible for the false spread, millions of people watched it on X and TikTok.
These “influence actors” have also attempted to stoke unrest by amplifying reports about immigrant arrivals in the United States and have used generative artificial intelligence ( AI ) to build fake websites that appeared to be authentic U.S. based media outlets, according to the DHS report.
” Nation-states, criminal hacktivists, and financially motivated criminals will likely improve their techniques to undermine U. S. services or to carry spy focused on gaining exposure to U. S. networks and critical equipment entities”, the DHS said in its annual country threat assessment.
The DHS assessment anticipates Russia, Iran, and China” may use a blend of provocative, undeclared, unlawful, and aggressive tactics to seek new opportunities to undermine confidence in U. S. political institutions and private social cohesion”.
Iran has “increasingly extreme in its overseas influence work,” according to the report, citing Egyptian actors who posed as activists online to stoke protests over the issue in Gaza.
Polls suggest that Harris and Republican-era president Donald Trump may have a close race that could cause partisan tensions and open the door for international adversaries to try to stifle the political process.
According to the report, domestic violent extremists are a further significant risk. DHS said it expects local extremists to try violent actions” with the goal of instilling concern among voters, candidates, and election workers, as well as disrupting election processes”.