Influence operationsU.S. Accuses Foreign Actors of Inflaming Tensions over Floyd Killing
U.S. adversaries are starting to weaponize protests that have gripped parts of the country “to sow divisiveness and discord,” according to top law enforcement officials who refused to share additional details. The U.S. Justice Department and the FBI allege that unnamed countries are actively manipulating information to make the situation in the United States worse.
U.S. adversaries are starting to weaponize protests that have gripped parts of the country “to sow divisiveness and discord,” according to top law enforcement officials who refused to share additional details.
The protests over the killing of George Floyd, an African American man who died in police custody after a white police officer held him down and pressed a knee against his neck, have caught the world’s attention, getting considerable media coverage in Russia, China and Iran.
But the U.S. Justice Department and the FBI now allege that unnamed countries are going a step further, actively manipulating information to make the situation in the United States worse.
“I believe that we have evidence that some of the foreign hackers and groups that are associated with foreign governments are focusing in on this particular situation we have here and trying to exacerbate it in every way they can,” U.S. Attorney General William Barr said Thursday during a news conference about the protests.
Barr further accused the foreign actors of “playing all sides to exacerbate the violence.”
FBI Director Christopher Wray declined to share additional information, though he cautioned that anyone running disinformation campaigns or influence operations to hurt the U.S. would not escape unscathed.
“Those foreign actors should know that we’re watching it extremely closely and are prepared to act if necessary,” he said.
Few Traces of Sophisticated Operation
U.S. intelligence officials have been bracing for some sort of influence operation, warning last week that it was likely just a matter of time before the country’s adversaries attempted to exploit the anger and mistrust that has been fueling both the protests and some of the response.
But independent analysts and experts contacted by VOA questioned the government’s claims, saying that while it was not impossible that some state-linked groups had refined their tactics and were running sophisticated influence operations, there were few traces, if any, online.
“We haven’t seen any open source evidence that there is sustained, covert online information operations targeting activism and protests in the United States,” Graham Brookie, director of the Washington-based Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, told VOA.
“The majority of messaging we’re seeing from Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela and others about the current protests in the United States is directed at domestic audiences in those countries,” Brookie added, though he cautioned a lack of evidence, at this point, of targeted influence operations was not necessarily surprising.
