The content, spread by Russian state media and networks of social media accounts and websites, criticizes the federal response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton, exploiting legitimate concerns about the recovery effort in an attempt to paint American leaders as incompetent and corrupt.
In some cases, the claims about the storms include fake images created using artificial intelligence, such as a photo depicting scenes of devastating flooding at Disney World that never happened, researchers say.
By seizing on real concerns about disaster recovery, Russia's disinformation agencies can worm their way into U.S. discourse, using hot-button issues to undermine Americans' trust in their government and each other.
These are not situations that foreign actors are creating; they're simply pouring gasoline on fires that already exist, said Melanie Smith, director of research at ISD.
Collection
[
|
...
]