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Misinfo AI

Does a video prove the CIA identified 20 people who organized vote stuffing by using the identities of dead Americans who had lived in Europe? No, that's not true: The CIA told Lead Stories the allegation that they identified deceased Americans voting is "absolutel false." The video spreading the vote-stuffing story has substantial evidence of manipulation, an AI detector organization found.

The claim appeared in a post and video (archived here) where it was published on X, formerly known as Twitter, on November 5, 2024. Its text said:

The @CIA said that all the fake votes belonged to American citizens who had lived and died in Europe in the past 10 years. @USAGov @FEC @FBI @KamalaHarris @realDonaldTrump #USElection2024 #USElections2024 #KamalaHarris #Trump2024

This is what the post looked like on X:

(Source: X screenshot taken on Nov 5, 2024 18:29:11 UTC)

The X account was suspended at the time of writing. The video in the post, as captured by Lead Stories before the account was suspended, has generic footage of tombstones at Arlington Cemetery with a ballot showing Kamala Harris and Donald Trump over the photo, a photo of CIA Director William Burns and video of him speaking. The only audio is music. The captions shown on the screen read:

The 20 individuals who organized vote stuffing from deceased US citizens have been identified. All of the rigged votes belonged to Americans who had lived and passed away in Europe in the last 10 years.

CIA Director William Burns says identifying such cases is extremely problematic due to bureaucratic complexities. 'In fact, citizens who have long been dead are still listed as alive on US soil. It's hard to imagine how many votes were actually stuffed in.'

No names are given in the video.

A CIA spokesperson responded to Lead Stories on November 6, 2024, via email and said the claim was "absolutely false":

A fabricated video claiming CIA identified deceased Americans allegedly voting is absolutely false, and is consistent with foreign disinformation that the U.S. Intelligence Community has long warned about.

A search of the CIA website (archived here) did not find any matching posts or press releases of the news that 20 individuals who were committing election fraud were identified, news they would have published had it happened amid the 2024 election.

The FBI warned about fake videos using the bureau's name and insignia to spread election misinformation in a press release (archived here) on November 5, 2024, saying such videos were not authentic and their contents were false.

Lead Stories ran this video throug the AI detection tools at TrueMedia.org. True Media found there was substantial evidence of manipulation (archived here) as this screenshot shows:

(Source: True Media website screenshot taken on Nov 5, 2024 18:36:32 UTC)

A search on Google (archived here) and on Google News (archived here) using the keywords "cia director william burns" and the quote from the video "It's hard to imagine how many votes were actually stuffed in" found no actual news reports that the CIA had made any announcement about 20 individuals who were vote stuffing amid the 2024 election. Had the intelligence agency done so it would have been national news.

The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released a joint statement (archived here) with the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the FBI on November 4, 2024, about Russian interference in the election:

'Since our statement on Friday, the IC has been observing foreign adversaries, particularly Russia, conducting additional influence operations intended to undermine public confidence in the integrity of U.S. elections and stoke divisions among Americans. The IC expects these activities will intensify through election day and in the coming weeks, and that foreign influence narratives will focus on swing states.

Russia is the most active threat. Influence actors linked to Russia in particular are manufacturing videos and creating fake articles to undermine the legitimacy of the election, instill fear in voters regarding the election process, and suggest Americans are using violence against each other due to political preferences, judging from information available to the IC. These efforts risk inciting violence, including against election officials. We anticipate Russian actors will release additional manufactured content with these themes through election day and in the days and weeks after polls close.'

Lead Stories has previously written about Russian disinformation research published in an October 2024 report (archived here) by Clemson University's Media Forensics Hub on people behind the Russian disinformation campaign called Storm-1516.

The format of the post and video and "evidence" components match the template used by the Russian disinformation campaign.

Other Lead Stories fact checks about the 2024 election can be found here.