Russia Disinformation

A quickly debunked Russian report on how U.S. voter roll data was supposedly making it to the “dark web” presented a perfect case study in the disinformation challenges election officials are facing, amid a voting season already in turmoil due to the pandemic.



Overnight Monday, a Russian business daily called Kommersant published a report, later aggregated in English by the Moscow Times and others, claiming that “hackers” had accessed and released the voter registration data of millions of Americans

Election veterans would quickly recognize that the voter roll information described — such as name, date of birth, and gender — is already publicly available in most states and usually pretty simple to obtain. Election officials in two of the states cited in the reports, Connecticut and Michigan, quickly confirmed as much to TPM.

But that didn’t stop others from credulously amplifying the report on Twitter without this key context, spreading disinformation that could cause voters to doubt the security of the coming election.

“What it does is obviously undermine confidence in the electoral system and plays into a narrative that casts doubt on the legitimacy of the election,” Jeffrey Edmonds, former Russia director on the National Security Council, told TPM.

State election officials expressed similar concerns, saying that the mere suggestion of a hack is enough to sow doubt among voters.


Bogus Russian News Story Shows How Election Disinfo Can ‘Hack Your Mind’

That's a page from Trump's playbook; amplifying wild conspiracy theories. See what he did with hydroxychloroquine?