The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has dismissed two widely circulated videos that claim the agency issued warnings regarding remote voting in the US election due to terrorist threats and alleged voting fraud in prisons.
In a statement released Tuesday, the FBI labelled the reports as “fabricated” and “not authentic.”
“The FBI was made aware of two instances of its name and insignia being misused in promoting false narratives surrounding the election,” the statement read. One of the false claims involves a doctored video suggesting the FBI warned Americans to “vote remotely” due to a heightened terror threat at polling stations. “This video is not authentic and does not accurately represent the current threat posture or polling location safety,” the FBI clarified.
The second claim involved a fabricated press release that alleged prison officials in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Arizona rigged inmate voting in collaboration with a political party. The FBI emphasised that “this video is also not authentic, and its contents are false.”
The videos in question were flagged by CNN as part of a disinformation campaign linked to Doppelganger, a Russia-based network that frequently disseminates misleading information. The video concerning prison voting showed an FBI watermark and a “Verified” page purportedly from the CIA, both identified as signatures of the Doppelganger campaign.
“Doppelganger is an ongoing Russian disinformation campaign run by a private company on behalf of the state,” said Darren Linvill, a disinformation expert from Clemson University.
According to Linvill, the campaign employed numerous low-quality bot accounts supported by paid engagement to spread misleading links to fake news pages. “It’s high volume, but low impact activity. Research has shown it receives limited organic engagement,” he added.
