Russian Narratives on Election Fraud
Authors: Ben Nimmo and the Graphika Team
Russian outlets and operations amplify claims of violations, especially by Democrats
Russian influence operations and state-backed outlets have been amplifying claims of election fraud, vote rigging and Big Tech interference ahead of the U.S. presidential election. These efforts do not appear to have gained substantial traction, but they suggest a focus on events that serve to de-legitimize the process and outcome, especially in the event of a Democratic victory, that resembles the behavior of Russian influence operations in 2016.
Assets linked to the Russian Internet Research Agency (IRA) have been promoting unverified or false claims of massive ballot tampering, often with lurid, hyper-partisan headlines. Russian state-sponsored media such as RT and Sputnik have provided a platform for conservative American commentators to accuse their rivals of large-scale fraud, without challenging or fact-checking their claims. All these properties have amplified claims of Big Tech “interference” or “censorship” on behalf of the Democratic Party.
These claims originated in the U.S. The Russian operations have not primarily created new content: they appear to have selected specific incidents and events to bolster a narrative of large-scale election fraud (which, in their narrative, would primarily favor the Democrats).
On September 3, 2020, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis published an assessment that “Russia is likely to continue amplifying criticisms of vote-by-mail and shifting voting processes amidst the COVID-19 pandemic to undermine public trust in the electoral process.” Since that report, Russian activity around alleged fraud has continued.
IRA-linked assets
Two main IRA-linked assets remain active online as of the time of writing. The first is the website USA Really: this was launched by a Russian outlet called the Federal News Agency (RIAFAN), which is in turn funded by oligarch Yevgeniy Prigozhin, founder of the IRA. RIAFAN and USA Really were both sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury in December 2018 under the heading of “attempted election interference.” The Treasury described USA Really’s content as “focused on divisive political issues but is generally ridden with inaccuracies;” that description remained true as of October 2020.
The second is the website NAEBC[.]com, short for the Newsroom for American and European Based Citizens. This site posed as a white supremacist, Hungary-based news outlet and hired apparently unwitting freelancers to post divisive content on political and racial issues in America. It was exposed in early October and its Twitter and LinkedIn accounts were suspended, but it still maintains a dozen accounts across Gab and Parler, two platforms popular among far-right users.
Both outlets have repeatedly posted claims of large-scale fraud or ballot tampering, especially by Democrats. There is no indication that these Russian reports achieved viral traction: most USA Really articles gathered a few hundred views at most, while the NAEBC social media posts gained only a handful of reactions. They are important for the indication they give of IRA-related assets’ targeting in the final countdown to the election, not because they appear effective.
USA Really published numerous articles about instances of ballot tampering, many of which were misleading. For example, USA Really cited a story by the Gateway Pundit about discarded ballots in California, implying these were active ballots. The allegation was quickly debunked by the electoral authority, and the Gateway Pundit updated its article accordingly; USA Really did not.
USAReally headline, September 25
On another occasion, USAReally posted a video which claimed to depict thousands of destroyed ballot applications from Trump supporters in the back of a truck. This claim was debunked and the “ballots” in the video revealed to be printing waste; USA Really did not update its report.
USAReally headline, October 8
USA Really repeatedly reported on claims of dumped ballots and other claims of electoral fraud, including the claim that delayed ballots were “electoral violations.” Not all the accusations were leveled at Democrats: it also reported on the California Republican Party’s use of fake ballot boxes. An article about TikTok stated simply that “electoral fraud is in full swing.”
Excerpt from USA Really on electoral fraud.
NAEBC-linked assets on Parler also repeatedly amplified claims that the Democratic Party was cheating on a massive scale. These posts constituted the majority of direct election-related content (much of the other content was more broadly focused on the racial grievances of whites, without an explicit election connection). They typically scored single-digit engagement figures, but they showed a consistent interest in claims of Democratic election fraud from their creation in September through to the end of October.
Sample posts by NAEBC assets on Parler amplifying claims of pro-Democratic election fraud. We have obscured the handles of these accounts to avoid giving them a greater audience. Note the unidiomatic English in the top left-hand post: “Don’t let Democrats to cheat their way to the power!”
Interlaced with these claims of ballot interference and fraud, especially by the Democratic Party, were claims of anti-conservative interference by the major tech platforms, especially Facebook and Twitter. Through September and October, the IRA-linked assets amplified accusations that the platforms were censoring conservative voices or tilting the election in favor of the Democrats.
Posts by NAEBC assets on Parler accusing Twitter, Facebook and Google of election censorship and interference.
The claims grew in volume after the New York Post published what it said were leaked emails from a laptop that once belonged to Hunter Biden, the son of presidential candidate Joe Biden. Facebook and Twitter both limited the reach of the article, triggering accusations of censorship from conservative Americans; the IRA-linked assets amplified those accusations. Again, their reach was minimal compared with that of some of the platforms’ American accusers: these posts are important for the narrative they show, not the effect they had.
Sample posts from NAEBC assets on Parler that specifically reference the New York Post story.
Russian state-sponsored media
In parallel to these covert efforts, Russian state-sponsored media outlets RT and Sputnik also amplified claims of election fraud and interference, especially, though not exclusively, focusing on accusations against the Democratic Party. On October 29, Twitter flagged a tweet from RT as sharing content that “might be misleading about how to participate in an election or another civic process.” It was the first time that the platform had treated a post by the Kremlin outlet in this way.
Some of the articles on these outlets’ websites featured accusations made by Republican operatives and supporters, which were presented without balancing commentary or fact checks. As such, these Russian state-funded outlets gave right-wing voices an unchallenged platform to air their accusations.
For example, on September 29 Sputnik interviewed conservative activist Mindy Robinson on what she called “voter fraud on a level that will surpass all others.” The activist made the following allegations; the Sputnik article did not question, fact-check or contextualize any of them, despite consistent reporting that electoral fraud has been minimal in the past 30 years:
“Conservatives have seen voter fraud and manipulation from the Left so often, it’s become a joke.”
“It almost always favours Democrats.”
“I think we’re about to see voter fraud on a level that will surpass all others in 2020... it’s the only way they could ever win at this point.”
“It’s madness how unsecure our elections have become.”
Similarly, on September 25 Sputnik interviewed conservative commentator DeAnna Lorraine, who described the left as “the biggest threat to America and to Western civilization.” Sputnik did not fact-check or challenge any of the interviewee’s comments, which included the following:
“They [the left] want to destroy all American values, American traditions, American way of life.”
“The left Democrats, they're trying very hard to cheat and steal this election because they're desperate and they know that a lot of people are going to be voting for President Trump.”
“The Democrats want to continue to destroy it [America].”
“He [Joe Biden] is a puppet for Marxism.”
One of Sputnik’s own questions in this interview strayed into partisan commentary: “The Democrats have been using the mainstream media extensively as a tool throughout this campaign as well as the previous one… from an outsider’s point of view it must be working, is it?”
A third article was based on a New York Post report which quoted an anonymous “former Democratic operative” as confessing to running vote-rigging schemes for years. Sputnik made no reference to any attempts to verify the claims; by contrast, Media Matters analyzed the original NYP article and concluded, “the story cites no other source for confirmation, even though the main principle of investigative journalism is to never rely on a single source of information.”
Other Sputnik articles focused on claims such as multiple ballots, discarded ballots, Democratic “dark money” being used to sway voters, and rich donors backing Biden; no recent reports looked at Republican funding. A particularly noteworthy piece accused the Democrats of trying to rig mail-in votes… in 1864.
Sputnik headline, August 24, 2020.
Commentary pieces on RT have also systematically amplified claims of election fraud. As early as May, an editorial argued that “Donald Trump is completely right about mail-in ballots - they are the easiest route to a RIGGED ELECTION.” In August, one editorial argued that “the mailing service can't be trusted – especially when the postal unions support Joe Biden,” while another claimed that postal voting offers “myriad opportunities for fraud that the media establishment would have Americans believe are mere figments of the president’s imagination.”
One series of editorials was written by Trump supporter Wayne Dupree, who also hosts a show on RT. The show is explicit about its partisan nature: it offers “real opinion in comprehensive, conservative, principled fashion.” The editorial series repeatedly alleged Democratic electoral fraud:
“There’s a whole bunch of dirty tricks being planned by the Democrats and their allies to try to make sure the Republicans lose the White House.”
“The Democrats will use fraud to win this fall’s presidential election, and Trump may have to call on the military.”
“The rioting and looting on our streets is designed to frighten us into submission and into accepting a Biden victory.”
“I believe the Democrats will resort to cheating and creating chaos in order to stop Donald Trump winning another four years in the White House. If they do, the result will tear our nation apart.”
Graphika has not been able to identify any RT editorials that favor Biden or defend the Democrats against accusations of interference, although one news article mentioned accusations of voter fraud by Republicans.
As with the covert assets, the Russian state sponsored media also promoted a narrative of Big Tech censorship and election interference, especially following the New York Post article. These accusations have a long track record (both RT and Sputnik promoted debunked accusations of Google interference in 2016); since August 2020, RT articles have cited accusations of Google “diverting votes” and “coordinated inauthentic behavior” for removing potentially partisan suggestions. “Coordinated inauthentic behavior” is a phrase coined by Facebook to describe the IRA’s activity in 2016; RT’s use of it against the platforms continues a longstanding practice of mirroring any accusations against Russia back on the accusers.
Other recent articles accused the platforms of censorship and bias. RT editorials on the New York Post story called the platforms’ response a “censorship fiasco” and “trying to bury it as soon as possible;” one wrote that “the news was duly squashed under the jackboot of Twitter and Facebook.”
RT headline, October 16, 2020.
Sputnik has been less vocal on this topic, but has interpreted calls for action against disinformation as censorship. After the New York Post story, one Sputnik article headlined a quote from the New York Post’s editor that the platforms’ move marked a “digital civil war.” Another article focused on Facebook, which said it had blocked a related post in error. “Yeah, Right… ,” the Sputnik headline began.