The FBI warns of two fake election videos

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has warned about two fake videos circulating online aimed at stoking doubts about the US presidential election – the latest in a series of warnings from senior officials.

BBC Verify found evidence linking the videos to a much larger, Russia-based operation that has produced hundreds of election-targeting hoaxes in recent months.

In a post on X on Saturday, the FBI said the two videos spread rumors about voter fraud and about Doug Emhoff, the husband of Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

The fake videos, which claim to be from the FBI and contain the FBI logo, were not viewed very often by real people on X.

“These videos are not authentic, do not come from the FBI and the content they depict is false,” he said says the FBI statement.

“Attempts to deceive the public with false content about FBI operations undermine our democratic process and aim to undermine trust in the electoral system.”

The content of the clips described by the FBI exactly matches videos that are part of a series of more than 300 videos found by BBC Verify since the beginning of the year as part of an investigation by online research firm Logically.

The videos use compelling graphics and text that appear like content from US government agencies as well as more than 50 news organizations – including BBC, France 24 and Fox News.

The videos have been posted online almost daily for months and have recently focused on the US election, including clips spreading false claims about Harris and messages about unrest and “civil war.”

CheckFirst – a Finland-based online analytics company that independently investigated the network behind the videos – traced them to a Russian marketing agency and a Russian IP address.

“Thanks to some assets that we know were manufactured by a Russian company, we can link the operation to Russia,” said Guillaume Kuster, CEO of CheckFirst.

“The other source of evidence is a data set that we had access to that proves that one of the machines used (by the group) to send emails was located in Russia.”

In addition, videos produced by the operation were widely shared on Russian-language Telegram channels.

CheckFirst found that the style, messages and themes of the videos were consistent with other Kremlin-related operations, an assessment supported by research from BBC Verify.

However, it is unclear who is leading the operation and whether it is being funded by the Russian government.

The Russian Embassy in Washington said in a statement that the country's allegations of election interference were “baseless.”

“All allegations of 'Russian machinations' are malicious slanders, invented for use in the internal political disputes in the United States.”

The measurement data from

The FBI declined to comment on the operation, but along with authorities, the FBI has issued two additional warnings about Russia-linked influence networks in recent days.

Three US agencies arrived on Friday, including the FBI, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency stated that a viral video that “falsely depicts people claiming to be from Haiti” in the election was created by “Russian influence actors.”.

Last week, intelligence agencies said a video purporting to show a poll worker in Pennsylvania destroying mail-in ballots for Donald Trump was “fake and amplified” by Russians.