A Russian disinformation campaign is targeting midterm candidates, and specifically Democrats, in what appears to be the Kremlin-backed operation’s first attempt to meddle in this year’s elections. The campaign is simple and designed to reach voters on social media. In a series of doctored selfie videos posted on various platforms, Hollywood actors appear to repudiate the Democratic Party and urge viewers to vote Republican. “When I hear Democrats, I immediately think of corrupt Nazi whores,” says a fake Sarah Jessica Parker. “If you love America, never vote for Democrats.” The videos are real: One clip featuring Julia Roberts is taken from Gucci’s Chime for Change 2023 campaign for gender equality, and others were taken from custom videos the actors recorded for fans on Cameo. But the audio is fake, apparently cloned from the actors’ voices with artificial intelligence and placed over a reel of right-wing bogeymen: Pride parades, Jeffrey Epstein, archival footage of drug deals and homeless encampments. In one of the fabricated videos posted on X, Bluesky, and TikTok, Roberts is made to say that Democrats and Big Pharma are conspiring to push a sinister trans agenda. In another, Emma Caulfield appears to call Democrats vampires who drink children’s blood. A manipulated clip of Christopher Lloyd from “Back to the Future” shows him criticizing Black Lives Matter, and a cloned voice of Ed Begley Jr. calls Democrats “perverts.” All videos feature unauthorized CNN logos in the top left corner and encourage viewers to share the clips and join the #AllDemocratsAreCriminals campaign. The campaign has not gone viral; the most popular posts get only dozens of interactions and were first flagged by @antibot4navalny, an anonymous group of analysts that tracks Russia-related influence operations. The campaign is familiar to disinformation researchers and has all the hallmarks of a long-running Kremlin-backed operation. Known variously as Matryoshka, Operation Overload and Storm-1679, the campaign is known for seeding social media with manipulated videos branded by real news outlets and law enforcement agencies to spread false narratives and erode public trust in Europe and the United States. It uses botnets and has been known to send clips directly to fact-checkers and newsrooms; a debunking by the media can amplify messages. The network appears to be targeting specific candidates in the midterm elections. On Friday, @antibot4navalny reported a new batch of fake CNN-branded videos targeting specific Democrats, including Chris Pappas in New Hampshire, James Talarico in Texas, Jon Ossoff in Georgia, Mary Peltola in Alaska, Roy Cooper in North Carolina and Sherrod Brown in Ohio. False claims include that Talarico hates Hasidic Jews, that Pappas funded doctors who approved gender transitions for children, and that Brown’s business harmed Ohio’s bee population. “This is Russia’s opening salvo in its attack on the US midterm elections,” Darren Linvill, a professor at Clemson University and co-director of its Watt Family Innovation Center Media Forensics Hub, told MS NOW. “Last year they burned Moldova, Armenia, Romania, France, Sweden and Germany, among others. Now it’s our turn.” More Articles Brandy Zadrozny Brandy Zadrozny is a senior business reporter at MS NOW.
