Russian hackers are once again attempting to influence U.S. elections, this time putting Texas on the front lines, the New York Times reports.
According to intelligence officials speaking to the Times on condition of anonymity, an infamous Russian influence operation is attempting to meddle in Texas’ U.S. Senate race by spreading deepfake videos alleging misconduct by Democrat James Talarico.
Researchers who track Russian disinformation campaigns said the unfounded claim about Talarico originated with Storm-1516, a covert group that in 2024 peddled similar unfounded allegations against Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, the former Democratic nominee for vice president.
The claim about Talarico first appeared Tuesday morning in a video posted on X by an account that had been created just a month before. The initial post received little attention until 12 hours later, when three verified accounts on X with large followings reposted it. Those larger accounts have been used by Storm-1516 to amplify their message in the past, cyber threat analysts told the Times.
The video was viewed more than 850,000 times in the first 24 hours.
This disinformation campaign comes roughly a week after conservative influencers spread a debunked claim that Talarico had checked into an Ohio mental hospital. Afterwards, some right-wing X users who propagated the story even apologized for spreading the disinformation.
“The most powerful people in the world know they can’t beat James Talarico with the truth, so they’re slandering him with A.I. deepfakes, foreign bots and conspiracy theories to protect their broken, corrupt political system,” Talarico campaign spokesman JT Ennis told the Times.
The attack followed a flurry of Russian posts on social media in recent weeks, indicating that Moscow is once again targeting an American election with online influence operations. All Russian influence posts appear to be targeting Democrats, according to the Times.
Other Democrats targeted recently by the group’s influence campaigns include Senator Jon Ossoff, who faces re-election in Georgia, and others running competitive races that could deliver Democrats control of the Senate. In addition to Talarico, Russian hackers are once again attempting to influence U.S. elections, this time putting Texas on the front lines, the New York Times reports.
According to intelligence officials speaking the Times on condition of anonymity, an infamous influence operation in Russia is attempting to meddle in Texas’ U.S. Senate by spreading deepfake videos alleging misconduct by Democrat James Talarico.
Researchers who track Russian disinformation campaigns said the unfounded claim about Talarico originated with Storm-1516, a covert group that in 2024 peddled similar unfounded allegations against Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota, the former democratic nominee for vice president.
The claim about Talarico first appeared Tuesday morning in a video posted on X by an account that had been created just a month before. The initial post received little attention until 12 hours later, when three verified accounts on X with large followings reposted it. Those larger accounts have been used by Storm-1516 to amplify their message in the past, cyber threat analysts told the Times.
The video was viewed more than 850,000 times in the first 24 hours.
This disinformation campaign comes roughly a week after conservative influencers spread a debunked claim that Talarico had checked into an Ohio mental hospital. Afterward, some right-wing X users who propagated the story even apologized for spreading the disinformation.
“The most powerful people in the world know they can’t beat James Talarico with the truth, so they’re slandering him with A.I. deepfakes, foreign bots and conspiracy theories to protect their broken, corrupt political system,” Talarico campaign spokesman JT Ennis, told the New York Times,
The attack followed a flurry of Russian posts on social media in recent weeks, indicating that Moscow is once again targeting an American election with online influence operations. The Russian influence posts appear to be targeting Democrats, according to the Times.
Other Democrats targeted recently by the group’s influence campaigns include Senator Jon Ossoff, who faces re-election in Georgia, and others running competitive races that could deliver democrats control of the Senate. In addtion to Talarico, those include the campaigns of Sherrod Brown in Ohio, Roy Cooper in North Carolina, Troy Jackson in Maine, Chris Pappas in New Hampshire, Mary Peltola in Alaska, Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan and Joshua Turek in Iowa.
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