It’s a video that has garnered several million views on social media. A man, introducing himself as Matthew Metro, delivers testimony likely to shake up the American presidential campaign. He accuses Kamala Harris’s running mate, Tim Walz, of sexually assaulting him when he was a high school student in Minnesota. Problem, and not the least: this video is generated by AI, and the real Matthew Metro never said these words.
If certain clues already suggest the falsity of the video, such as the robotic tone of the voice, it is Matthew Metro himself who denied these accusations to the Washington Post. Aged 45, this resident of Hawaii assures him: Tim Walz never gave him lessons, and he never met him. Some elements of his biography are correct, such as the fact that he studied well in the high school where Kamala Harris’s running mate taught at the time, but Matthew Metro says he does not know why and how his identity was usurped. Speaking to the American media, he said he was deeply irritated that his name was used to make false accusations, with which he risks being associated forever. “It is an attack on my privacy and my personal life,” he lamented.
The shadow of Russia
At the heart of this disinformation campaign, researchers and experts have no doubt: we indeed find all the signs of a destabilizing maneuver coming from Russia. More specifically, an opaque propaganda network under the name of Storm-1516extremely active in the creation and dissemination of deepfakes (fake videos generated by AI) in order to flood social networks with false information aimed at serving the interests of the Kremlin. Recently, he was cited in another disinformation campaign, this time targeting Kamala Harris. With again the creation of a false testimony by AI, of a supposedly paralyzed woman, who recounted how the Democratic presidential candidate allegedly ran over her by car in 2011 in San Francisco before fleeing – a story denied by the police themselves.
As part of the maneuver against Tim Walz, the American authorities are also certain: “based on new information, intelligence believes that Russian influence actors created and amplified content alleging inappropriate activities committed by the candidate Democrat for the vice-presidency at the start of his career”, testified a senior American official to the Washington Post.
According to a count carried out by the American media NBC News With the help of specialist researchers, at least 50 false narratives have been launched in this way by the Storm-1516 network since last fall. “The threat is greater than it has ever been,” warned United States Attorney General Merrick Garland a few weeks ago. A concern shared by Microsoft Threat Analysis Centerwho had already warned in mid-September that “Russia was moving towards the Harris-Walz campaign, with actors broadcasting false videos aimed at sowing discord and spreading disinformation” against the Democratic tandem.
“The danger comes from the considerable volume of testimonies they create”
Although many of these false testimonies remain buried in the depths of social networks and conspiracy circles, some nevertheless manage to emerge on the media scene. Like that of an alleged whistleblower claiming that Ukrainian leaders would use American aid to buy yachts, echoed live on television by… JD Vance, Donald Trump’s running mate.
In the case of the accusations against Tim Walz, the falsified video was relayed by several influential figures in the Trumpist sphere, such as conspiracy activist Jack Posobiec with 2.7 million subscribers on X, now a member of the campaign team by Donald Trump, or even Candace Owens, a podcast producer close to the ex-president, who has 5.7 million subscribers on Elon Musk’s social network.
“The danger comes from the sheer volume of testimonies they create. And it only takes one person, an influencer with disproportionate influence, to take a video and amplify it in the United States. […] They can fail 99 times, but on the 100th time, they can get it right and succeed,” insists NBC Clint Watts, general manager of Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center.
Inciting violence
Behind all these disinformation maneuvers, Russian objectives are diverse. Reduce Western support for Ukraine, obviously, through campaigns affecting both the United States and Europe. In the American case, Russia is also pushing for a re-election of Donald Trump, who has pledged to end military aid to kyiv, portraying him as a victim of a “deep state” and increasing campaigns of disinformation against the Democratic camp.
However, the American authorities see behind the multiplication of these disinformation campaigns of all kinds an attempt to destabilize the country more broadly. “Some of these influence efforts are intended to incite violence and call into question the reliability of democracy as a political system, regardless of who wins,” a senior intelligence official told the US press. Americans, saying Russia “potentially seeks to fuel threats against election officials, as well as amplify protests and encourage them to become violent.”
In Washington, we particularly fear the long weeks between November 5, when we should know who Kamala Harris or Donald Trump will be the next American president, and January 20, the official start of the winner’s mandate.
The Republican candidate is obviously a major asset for Russia in its attempts at destabilization. While he has still not admitted his defeat in 2020, and has not assured that he will recognize the result of the upcoming election, it is impossible not to think of the attempted coup d’état and the The assault on the Capitol by supporters of Donald Trump on January 6, 2021. The billionaire’s campaign team did not wait for Russian networks to make the propagation of false information its trademark. Blessed bread for the little hands of the Kremlin, who then only have to amplify them on social networks.