Three US intelligence agencies has warned of foreign interference on the Election Day and dubbed Russia as “most active threat”.
In the 2024 US presidential election, foreign interference has emerged as the major issue. Foreign adversaries like Russia and Iran are capitalising on internal faultlines and doubts sown by Republican candidate Donald Trump about the US electoral system to spread disinformation, stoke tensions, trigger violence, and destabilise the United States.
In a joint statement on the eve of the Election Day, the Office of Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) said that foreign adversaries are conducting “influence operations intended to undermine public confidence in the integrity of U.S. elections and stoke divisions among Americans” and such attacks are expected to rise on and in the aftermath of Election Day.
The US intelligence community expects such interference to focus on swing states on the Election Day and coming days as ballots are counted.
Foreign influence operations, particularly by Russia, is aimed at instilling fears and doubts regarding the elections and inciting violence, said the ODNI, FBI, and CISA in the joint statement.
Russian influence operations are manufacturing videos and creating fake articles to undermine the legitimacy of the election, instill fear in voters regarding the election process, and suggest Americans are using violence against each-other on partisan lines, said the statement.
To a lesser extent, Iran has also interfered in the US election. Previously, Iran has been blamed for hacking the Trump campaign. Similarly, China has also been reported to have targeted the Trump campaign, mounting cyber-attacks on phones of Trump and his running mate JD Vance.
