Armed with new technology and tactics, Russian trolls are back to disrupt U.S. elections

National Urban League “Russia remains the most active foreign threat to our elections. The Russian government’s goals in such influence operations tend to include eroding trust in U.S. democratic institutions, exacerbating sociopolitical divisions in the United States, and degrading western support to Ukraine. Russia relies on a vast multimedia influence apparatus, which consists of its intelligence services, cyber actors, state media, proxies and social media trolls. Moscow most likely views such operations as a means to tear down the United States as its perceived primary adversary, enabling Russia to promote itself as a great power.”& – U.S. Director of National Intelligence In the spring of 2019, the National Urban League’s State of Black America report was the first to highlight the extent of Russian efforts to deceive, manipulate and exploit Black voters in the 2016 presidential election. Five months later, a Senate Intelligence Committee report confirmed our findings: Russian trolls targeted Black Americans more than any other group to dissuade them from voting. Now, as the 2024 presidential election approaches, the Russians are at it again, armed with new technology and new techniques. Videos, spewing disinformation, with voices and images manipulated by artificial intelligence, are the medium of choice for...