U.S. officials say Russia is working to amplify doubts about the integrity of American elections while China is interested in influencing policy perspectives in favor of Beijing. That concern aligns with unclassified intelligence advisory obtained by The Associated Press that says China is probably seeking to influence select races to “hinder candidates perceived to be particularly adversarial to Beijing.” Intelligence officials have privately warned state and local officials that Beijing sees a lower risk in meddling in the midterms versus a presidential election.
Russia is amplifying divisive topics already circulating on the Internet — including doubts about the integrity of American elections — but not creating its own content, said a senior FBI official who briefed reporters Monday.
The briefing Monday came weeks after the private distribution of an advisory from the Department of Homeland Security's intelligence arm that described China’s approach during this midterm as different from the 2020 election, when the intelligence community assessed that China considered but did not deploy efforts to influence the presidential election.
A DHS spokesperson said the department regularly shares threat information with federal, state and local officials. “I do think there is a lot voters should be doing," he added."If they are seeing messages about candidates presented in an alarmist or emotionally charged way, their radar should be going up. They should be checking the accuracy of claims, and if they are seeing false claims, they should be letting the social media companies know.”
Officials at the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security said Monday they were not aware of any credible threat to election infrastructure. A senior FBI official said that though the FBI was not tracking any specific effort by a foreign government to hack election equipment, officials were nonetheless concerned that an adversary could spread exaggerated or false claims of compromise to undermine confidence in the elections.
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