“A video has surfaced from Bucks County, Pennsylvania showing a ballot counter destroying Donald Trump’s ballots and keeping Kamala Harris’s ballots for counting,” an account named “Dan from Ohio” wrote in the comments section from the far-right website Gateway Pundit. “Why hasn’t this man been arrested?”
But Dan is not from Ohio and the video he mentioned is fake. In fact, it is one of hundreds of inauthentic accounts posting in unmoderated spaces in the comment sections of right-wing news sites as part of a Russian disinformation campaign. These accounts were discovered by researchers from media watchdog NewsGuard, who shared their findings with WIRED.
“NewsGuard identified 194 users targeting the same articles, pushing the same pro-Russian talking points and disinformation narratives, while posing as disgruntled Western citizens,” the report states. Researchers found that these fake accounts posted comments in four pro-Trump American publications: Gateway Pundit, New York Post, Breitbart and Fox News. They also published similar comments in the Daily Mail, a UK tabloid, and on the French website Le Figaro.
Neither website responded to a request for comment from WIRED.
“The actors behind this campaign appear to be exploiting a particularly vulnerable part of the media landscape,” McKenzie Sadeghi, artificial intelligence and foreign influence editor at NewsGuard, tells WIRED. “Comment sections designed to encourage reader participation lack robust security measures, allowing bad actors to post freely, change identities, and create the illusion of genuine grassroots campaigns rather than orchestrated propaganda.”
According to Newsguard, the disinformation narratives pushed by these accounts are linked to Storm-1516. Storm-1516 is a Russian disinformation campaign with a history of posting fake videos to push Kremlin talking points to the West and was also linked to the release of a deepfake video that falsely claimed to show a whistleblower making accusations of assault. sexual against the vice presidential candidate and Minnesota. Governor Tim Walz. (WIRED first reported that Walz’s video was part of a Storm-1516 campaign. A day later, the US government confirmed WIRED’s report.)
Multiple accounts posted links to the video with names like “Disobedient Truth” and “Private Patriot” in the comments sections of outlets like Breitbart and Gateway Pundit.
“More bad news for Democrats: Breaking: Tim Walz alum Matthew Metro drops shocking allegation: He claims Walz sexually assaulted him in 1997 while Walz was his teacher at Mankato West High School,” the comments read. .