Video showing Pennsylvania ballots being ripped up is fake, officials say
A video circulating online this week purported to show an election worker in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, tearing up votes for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. But the video, it turns out, was fake.
The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office and local police said the video was "clearly not authentic," and was "fabricated in an attempt to undermine confidence in the upcoming election," Officials said the FBI is investigating, FOX 29 reports.
The fake footage was shared repeatedly on X, including by a Q Anon-linked account with more than 120,000 followers. The post has since been deleted.
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The envelopes featured in the video don’t match the official ballot envelopes in Pennsylvania, but that didn’t stop people from believing they were real.
It’s not the first fake video making the rounds this election season: There was the fake video that alleged abuse by Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, which likely originated in Russia, officials said. And falsehoods abounded following Helene in September, involving weather control and the withholding of money to areas dominated by Republicans.
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According to the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue, Russian state media and networks of social media accounts and websites have exploited legitimate concerns about hurricane recovery efforts in an effort to paint American leaders as corrupt and incompetent.
In some cases, fake images created by artificial intelligence were circulated, including a photo showing devastating Disney World flooding that never happened.
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The new effort, which involves spreading fake videos discrediting Harris and her campaign, is the latest foreign interference linked to Russia in recent weeks. Darren Linvill, Professor & Co-Director of the Watt Family Innovation Center Media Forensics Hub at Clemson University, joined LiveNOW from FOX's Josh Breslow to discuss the latest developments.
These lies have infected the political debate this fall – and they’re a sobering reminder of how quickly things can spread.
It’s even more challenging when Trump, the GOP nominee, also spreads lies about disaster response, including that federal funding is being diverted for use on people in the country illegally.
"It’s just bizarre. They got to stop this. They’re being so damn un-American with the way they're talking about this stuff," President Joe Biden said earlier this month when asked about Trump spreading falsehoods.
With the election less than two weeks away, news outlets feel the weight of responsibility, particularly since they've been dragged down given how misinformation has metastasized.
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Several plans to combat misinformation are in place across newsrooms that will follow the climax of a hard-fought campaign on Nov. 5.
Election night coverage has changed considerably from the time where getting the count, and the analysis, right was the main concern. Tim Richardson, journalism and misinformation program director at PEN America, hopes the news outlets are prepared for what is to come.
"I feel like we're kind of in uncharted territory and I don't know what will emerge," he said. "Hopefully journalists are ready. I think they are."