() – Microsoft said Tuesday that Russian operatives have stepped up their online attacks against Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign in recent weeks, producing and spreading videos promoting “outlandish conspiracy theories” aimed at stoking racial and political divisions in the United States.
One of the fake videos, which Microsoft said has been viewed millions of times, claimed to show Harris supporters attacking an attendee at a Donald Trump rally. Another video falsely claimed Harris paralyzed a girl in a 2011 hit-and-run accident. The Russian operatives promoted the latter story through a website that purported to be a local San Francisco outlet, Microsoft investigators said.
Both videos remained available on X as of Tuesday afternoon, with one post of the video garnering 1.5 million views on its own. has requested comment from the social media platform.
The report is the latest evidence that Kremlin-linked trolls and digital operatives are stepping up efforts to denigrate Harris’ campaign just weeks before the presidential election. U.S. intelligence agencies warned in July that Russia was planning to “covertly use social media” to try to influence public opinion and undermine support for Ukraine in key states.
Russia’s preferences for the presidential race have not changed since 2020 or 2016, when Moscow carried out a series of influence operations aimed at denigrating Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton, respectively, according to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
has requested comment on the Microsoft report from the Harris-Walz campaign and the Russian embassy in Washington.
There was an initial period after Biden dropped out of the presidential race in July when Russian influence operations “scrambled” to find new ways to attack the Democratic nominee, according to Microsoft. But in late August and early September, videos attacking Harris and her supporters emerged.
“The shift to focus on the Harris-Walz campaign reflects a strategic move by Russian actors aimed at exploiting any perceived vulnerabilities in new candidates,” Clint Watts, general manager of Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center, said in a blog post.
The investigation comes amid a series of U.S. government actions aimed at curbing Russian disinformation efforts targeting American voters in the final stages of the presidential campaign.
Last week, the State Department declassified intelligence alleging that Russian state media outlet RT has become fully integrated into Russia’s intelligence operations around the world, including those targeting elections.
That followed an indictment unsealed by the Justice Department accusing two RT employees of funneling nearly $10 million to a U.S. company, identified by as Tenet Media, to create and amplify content aligned with Russian interests.
US social media giant Meta announced a ban on RT on Monday due to the Russian network’s “foreign interference activity.”
Iran has been the only other foreign power actively trying to influence the US presidential campaign, according to US intelligence officials.
Tehran has conducted covert activity on social media in an effort to undermine Trump’s candidacy, U.S. officials said. Iranian-backed hackers have also targeted Trump’s campaign by hacking and leaking internal campaign documents to U.S. media outlets, according to a statement from the FBI and other agencies.
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