Russian Influence Campaign Turned to Harris After Biden Exited Race, Microsoft Says
- Influence operations struggled on how to handle Biden exit
- Russian groups posted video to fake news site, researchers say
Kamala Harris during an event in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, on Aug. 15.
Photographer: Aaron Schwartz/BloombergAfter President Joe Biden ended his campaign to return to the White House, Russian efforts to influence the US election shifted to smearing Vice President Kamala Harris with doctored and misleading videos, according to new research from Microsoft Corp.
In late August and early September, two Russian groups began publishing videos that pushed conspiracy theories about the new Democratic presidential nominee, including a bogus claim that Harris was involved in a hit-and-run car crash, the company said in a report published Tuesday. The groups posted videos that maligned Harris on social media, and one of them tried to use a website posing as a local US news outlet to promote one of the videos, Microsoft said.