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Top U.S. intelligence officials say Russia, China and Iran are continuing to target voters in the U.S. with disinformation and propaganda related to the upcoming presidential election. Groups linked to the Kremlin are increasingly using commercial public relations firms in Russia or unwitting Americans to spread their false claims as a way to hide their tracks. Officials say they've issued more warnings this year to candidates and other people who have been targeted by foreign disinformation. They say the aim of America's adversaries is to spread divisive and incendiary content that adds fuel to existing debates and worsens the country's political polarization. The intelligence officials briefed reporters on Monday.

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FILE - An iPhone displays the Facebook app, Aug. 11, 2019, in New Orleans. Russia, China and Iran are continuing to target voters in the U.S. with disinformation and propaganda related to the upcoming presidential election, top intelligence officials told reporters on Monday, July 29, 2024. Groups linked to the Kremlin are increasingly using private public relations firms or unwitting social media users to spread their false claims as a way to hide their tracks. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)

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A Muslim man walks past a wall pasted with election propaganda of the main opposition candidate in the upcoming presidential election in Colombo, Sri Lanka, Friday, July 26, 2023. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

Cybersecurity experts and French officials say Russian disinformation campaigns against France are zeroing in on legislative elections and the Olympic Games which open in Paris at the end of the month. More than a dozen reports issued in the past year point to an intensifying effort from Russia to undermine France and President Emmanuel Macron, who is one of Ukraine’s most vocal supporters in Europe. The attacks include misleading posts purporting to be by legitimate French media outlets, as well as the Star of David graffitied on walls in Paris and caskets left at the Eiffel Tower.

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Pakistan's Interior Ministry says police have raided the imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s political party office in Islamabad and arrested its spokesman for carrying out anti-state propaganda. In a statement on Monday, the ministry said officers also arrested Ahmad Janjua, a media coordinator for Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf or PTI party. Janjua was arrested over the weekend in a separate raid. The party’s chairman, Gohar Ali Khan, has condemned the police action. Pakistani authorities often accuse the PTI of running a campaign against the country’s institutions, a reference to the military, a charge the party denies.

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Two very different conspiracy theories are spreading in the days following former President Donald Trump's attempted assassination at a Pennsylvania rally. For some Trump supporters, the failure of the Secret Service to stop the shooter before he fired at the Republican ex-president suggests a conspiracy orchestrated by Democratic President Joe Biden. But for some Trump critics the same video footage is being used to suggest Trump staged the shooting. There's no evidence to support either claim. Authorities haven't suggested a motive for the shooter. That lack of information is prompting many people to go online for information. Often, the misleading claims they encounter say less about the shooting than the country's political polarization.

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A deep dive into political ads on Facebook by researchers at Syracuse University has revealed a sprawling web of advertisements that contain misleading information or scams. The work by professor Jennifer Stromer-Galley found ads that promised voters free Donald Trump-themed flags and other merchandise as part of an attempt to get their credit card information. Other ads contained false claims about crime or immigration, or featured deepfakes of celebrities endorsing candidates. As the research shows, weak regulations governing online ads and weak enforcement by tech companies have made online ads a tantalizing way for con artists to target victims.

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The nation's top intelligence official says Iran has been working to encourage protests over Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said Tuesday that groups linked to the Iranian government have posed as online activists, encouraged protests in the U.S. and even provided some financial support. Haines said that while Americans have a right to protest, they should know when foreign governments are seeking to meddle in domestic affairs. Officials say Russia, Iran and China may all seek to spread disinformation ahead of the 2024 election in an effort to undermine faith in democracy.

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A Russian internet propaganda campaign backed by the Kremlin that spread disinformation in the United States and relied on artificial intelligence has been disrupted. That's according to the U.S. Justice Department, which announced the development on Tuesday. Officials described the operation as part of an ongoing effort to sow discord in the U.S. through the creation of fictitious social media profiles that purported to belong to legitimate users but were actually designed to advance the aims of the Russian government, including by spreading disinformation about its war with Ukraine.

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FILE - This May 4, 2021 file photo shows a sign outside the Robert F. Kennedy Department of Justice building in Washington. A Russian internet propaganda campaign backed by the Kremlin that spread disinformation in the United States and relied on artificial intelligence has been disrupted. That's according to the U.S. Justice Department, which announced Tuesday that it seized nearly 1,000 bogus social media accounts. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)