Securing Democracy Dispatch

Meta and other social media companies’ bans on Russian state media likely do not stop their hardcore followers from accessing their content, but hurts RT’s “ability to span platforms, to reach new audiences” that “are not actively seeking out RT”, Senior Fellow Bret Schafer told the New York Times.

Despite the severity of foreign interference threats to the 2024 US election, the US government is better prepared than in 2020 or 2016 due to recognition of the threat, enhanced focus from the intelligence community, and enhanced federal-local coordination and resources, Co-Managing Director David Salvo said during an event at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center.

A Russian information campaign targeting the Balkans garnered little engagement, but its effectiveness matters little to the Kremlin, Investigative Data and Research Analyst Peter Benzoni told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. “Just as with drones, low-cost attacks that fail 99% of the time are justified by the one percent that succeed. These sites are the drones of information warfare.”

Russian diplomats and state media focused on two main narratives this week:

• Zelenskyy’s Visit: Russian state media attempted to turn Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to the United States this week into a wedge issue by highlighting Republican anger over Zelenskyy’s decision to tour, along with several top Democrats, an arms factory in Pennsylvania. US Speaker Mike Johnson’s letter to Zelenskyy demanding the removal of Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, Oksana Makarova, for organizing the tour, unsurprisingly served as fodder for Russian propaganda accounts, many of which shared the letter in its entirety. Deputy chairman of the Security Council of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, accused Ukraine’s president of “meddling” in US elections, a claim echoed by Russia’s top United Nations (UN) diplomat. State media also amplified former US President Donald Trump’s “compliments” about Zelenskyy’s ability to secure financial support from Washington, calling them “extremely backhanded”. The topic of US financial support for Ukraine was present in multiple posts, with RT show Going Underground sharing a photoshopped image of Zelenskyy walking next to Joe Biden with the US president depicted carrying an ATM machine.
• Nuclear Threat: Last week, Russia’s State Duma chairman, Vyacheslav Volodin, claimed that the European Parliament is calling for “a world war using nuclear weapons”. Days later, Russian President Vladmir Putin commented that Russia reserves the right to use nuclear weapons if “the enemy creates a critical threat to [Russia’s] sovereignty with conventional weapons”. This was announced as part of a “change to Russia’s nuclear doctrine”, with state media noting that the “core principle of nuclear weapon use remains the same: they are a last resort to protect sovereignty”. But Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov struck a more ominous tone, saying that the change should be interpreted as “a warning to the West”. 

The People’s Republic of China’s (PRC) diplomats and state media focused on two main narratives this week: 

• UNGA: PRC diplomats and state media outlets covered various speeches at the UN General Assembly on Monday. PRC diplomats in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and the European Union all highlighted foreign minister Wang Yi’s plea for “an orderly multipolar world”. PRC voices also criticized US President Joe Biden’s speech, quoting a Lebanese official describing it as “not strong, not promising”, accusing it of “hijack[ing] the UN platform to push [the United States’] strategic competition agenda”, and describing the US president’s legacy as “West vs the Rest”. The spokesperson for the PRC Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), along with diplomats in Ireland and Mexico and several state media outlets, also highlighted that the PRC voted with 123 other countries to call for the end of Israeli occupation of certain Palestinian territories, while the United States was one of only 14 nations opposing the resolution.
• Shenzhen Stabbing: Last week, PRC messaging reacted to the stabbing of a 10-year-old Japanese boy in Shenzhen. After insisting that the stabbing was an “individual case” on Thursday and Friday, the spokesperson for the MFA highlighted the Chinese public’s outpouring of sympathy for the victim on Monday and dismissed Japanese safety concerns as “exaggerating and sensationalizing” on Tuesday. Some pro-PRC commentators sought to depoliticize the incident while others seemed unhappy about the presence of Japanese schools in China. Following the attack, the MFA released an agreement between the PRC and Japan on the discharge of Fukushima’s treated wastewater. In a statement relayed by several state media outlets, the MFA insisted that the timing of the agreement’s release had nothing to do with the stabbing.

Ga. election board approves controversial ballot counting rule: The Georgia State Election Board approved a controversial rule that requires the state’s voting precincts to count ballots by hand and ensure the tallies match those generated by voting machines before certifying election results, a change that election and state officials warn could cause delays in vote counting. Research Assistant Krystyna Sikora said, “Election experts largely agree that the hand-counting movement is rooted in false election narratives. Georgia’s last-minute change could slow reporting of election results and jeopardize ballot integrity by making election workers learn new procedures just weeks before Election Day, which in turn increases the likelihood of election administration mistakes. These conditions could be used to fuel conspiratorial claims about the integrity of the 2024 election.”

Faux websites posing as UK news outlets smear Western companies in Ukraine: Two faux news websites impersonating reputable UK-based media outlets employed artificial intelligence to publish fake stories falsely attributed to real journalists that accused Western companies operating in Ukraine of arms trafficking, judicial fraud, and embezzlement. Investigative Data and Research Analyst Peter Benzoni told the Dispatch, “The tactics used in this case—creating faux news websites to mimic legitimate media—are consistent with the strategies ASD identified in our ‘Nesting Doll’ report and those detailed in the US Department of Justice’s  recent takedown of Russian interference efforts. By undermining both Ukrainian and Western credibility, these narratives serve dual purposes: destabilizing trust in Ukraine’s allies while eroding the West’s own media landscape. These are not isolated incidents but part of a broader strategic goal to exploit weak regulatory frameworks in democratic states.”

Pro-Russian hackers target Austrian websites days before election: Days before Austria’s legislative elections, pro-Kremlin hacking groups launched distributed denial-of-service attacks on more than 40 websites associated with Austria’s government, airports, and financial system; two political parties said their websites were also temporarily unavailable due to similar hacks. Senior Manager for Europe and Fellow Vassilis Ntousas said, “The fact that Austria is a target by Kremlin-aligned forces ahead of this critical election should surprise no one. Europe has seen an unprecedented number of foreign information manipulation and interference incidents being publicly reported this year, and attacks like this, which are very likely only the tip of the iceberg, fit established patterns of Russian interference that we have seen play out consistently and repeatedly in other national and electoral contexts. Even if the impact of this particular series of offensives is limited for the upcoming legislative election, the fact that Kremlin-aligned actors feel comfortable launching them in such a public way so close to the election underlines the need for much more effective deterrence strategies and mitigation responses.”

In Case You Missed It

• US federal prosecutors indicted New York City Mayor Eric Adams on various corruption charges, including soliciting and accepting illegal bribes from Türkiye in exchange for favors.
• Iranian-linked hackers targeting former US President Donald Trump’s campaign have shared hacked materials dated as late as September 15 with journalists, suggesting continued access to campaign documents.
• US intelligence officials confirmed that Russia, Iran, and the PRC have enlisted artificial intelligence in their influence campaigns targeting the United States, including to promote content about divisive issues such as immigration and the Israel-Hamas war.
• TikTok removed accounts associated with RT and Sputnik for engaging in “covert influence operations”, joining Meta and YouTube in removing such pages.
• Telegram will disclose the IP addresses and phone numbers of users who violate platform rules, including by selling illegal goods on the service, in response to legal queries.

Ursula von der Leyen: The New College of Commissioners. Senior Manager for Europe and Fellow Vassilis Ntousas quoted in Tovima

Experts warn of foreign interference in elections through social media. Co-Managing Director David Salvo quoted in 29 News

Le strategie di disinformazione della Russia per influenzare l’opinione pubblica occidentale: il caso Tenet Media e l’Operazione doppleganger (Russia’s disinformation strategy to influence Western public opinion: the case of Tenet Media and Doppelganger). Research Assistant Krystyna Sikora quoted in Valigia Blu

Οι προτεραιότητες και οι αλλαγές (Priorities and Changes).  Senior Manager for Europe and Fellow Vassilis Ntousas quoted in TA NEA

Opinion | Rogue states are meddling in our politics. Here’s how to stop it. ASD research quoted in The Washington Post

“Our No. 1 job is to make sure that [election workers are] safe and that they can carry out the process that needs to get done. Maricopa County has seen major events—the Super Bowl, World Series. We treat the election process the same. We treat it as a major event.”

—Maricopa County, Arizona Sheriff Russ Skinner, in comments to the Michigan Advance published on September 26 about the threat of election intimidation.

The views expressed in GMF publications and commentary are the views of the author alone.