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Incident 969: Russian Disinformation Campaign Allegedly Used Fake News Site 'KBSF-San Francisco News' and Deepfake Video to Falsely Accuse Kamala Harris of 2011 Hit-and-Run

Description: A Russian disinformation campaign allegedly used a fake news site, "KBSF-San Francisco News," and an AI-generated deepfake video to falsely accuse Kamala Harris of a 2011 hit-and-run accident in San Francisco. The deepfake featured a fabricated African-American victim, whose AI-generated testimony spread widely across social media. Microsoft identified the hoax as part of Russian cyber influence operations targeting the 2024 U.S. election, with the site registered in Iceland.
Editor Notes: The KBSF-San Francisco News site was registered on August 20th, 2024, in Reykjavík, Iceland. The deepfake video and hoax about Kamala Harris emerged on September 2nd, 2024. While it has not been conclusively proven, there are strong indications that KBSF-San Francisco News may be part of the network of fake news sites disseminating pro-Kremlin propaganda and which is potentially linked to John Mark Dougan. See Incident 701 for more information.

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Alleged: Government of Russia and John Mark Dougan developed an AI system deployed by Government of Russia , John Mark Dougan , KBSF-San Francisco News and Storm-1516, which harmed Kamala Harris , General public of the United States , General public , Democracy , Truth and Journalism.
Alleged implicated AI system: Unknown deepfake app

Incident Stats

Incident ID
969
Report Count
4
Incident Date
2024-09-02
Editors

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

Incident OccurrenceAI Deepfakes: The Case of the Fake African-American Woman Accusing Kamala Harris of Running Her OverFact Check: Kamala Harris hit-and-run story stems from unreliable websiteInfluence campaigns from Iran, China, Russia ramping up ahead of elections, Microsoft findsPutin's pro-Trump trolls accuse Harris of poaching rhinos
AI Deepfakes: The Case of the Fake African-American Woman Accusing Kamala Harris of Running Her Over

AI Deepfakes: The Case of the Fake African-American Woman Accusing Kamala Harris of Running Her Over

repubblica.it

Fact Check: Kamala Harris hit-and-run story stems from unreliable website

Fact Check: Kamala Harris hit-and-run story stems from unreliable website

reuters.com

Influence campaigns from Iran, China, Russia ramping up ahead of elections, Microsoft finds

Influence campaigns from Iran, China, Russia ramping up ahead of elections, Microsoft finds

politico.com

Putin's pro-Trump trolls accuse Harris of poaching rhinos

Putin's pro-Trump trolls accuse Harris of poaching rhinos

theregister.com

AI Deepfakes: The Case of the Fake African-American Woman Accusing Kamala Harris of Running Her Over
repubblica.it · 2024
AI Translated

"It happened on the corner of Post and Jones Streets. We were crossing and a car came out from behind a parked van. Post Street is a one-way street, so we weren't expecting anyone to come from that side. Mom reacted quickly and jumped back,…

Fact Check: Kamala Harris hit-and-run story stems from unreliable website
reuters.com · 2024

A false report about U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris having been involved in a 2011 hit-and-run accident in San Francisco originated from an unreliable website.

There is no evidence the incident described ever happened and an analysis by …

Influence campaigns from Iran, China, Russia ramping up ahead of elections, Microsoft finds
politico.com · 2024

Iranian hackers are gearing up for a potentially major influence operation ahead of the U.S. elections, running parallel to increased election interference efforts from China and Russia, Microsoft said in a report released Wednesday.

The fi…

Putin's pro-Trump trolls accuse Harris of poaching rhinos
theregister.com · 2024

Russian, Iranian, and Chinese trolls are all ramping up their US election disinformation efforts ahead of November 5, but – aside from undermining faith in the democratic process and confidence in the election result – with very different o…

Variants

A "variant" is an incident that shares the same causative factors, produces similar harms, and involves the same intelligent systems as a known AI incident. Rather than index variants as entirely separate incidents, we list variations of incidents under the first similar incident submitted to the database. Unlike other submission types to the incident database, variants are not required to have reporting in evidence external to the Incident Database. Learn more from the research paper.

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