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By Jonathan Landay and Patricia Zengerle
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russia, Iran and China are intent on fanning divisive narratives to divide Americans ahead of the Nov. 5 U.S. elections, an American intelligence official said on Tuesday, although they are unlikely to be able to manipulate the contests at a scale that would affect the outcome of the presidential race.
The official told a briefing for reporters that foreign actors could consider physical threats and violence in the pre-election period, and after the election, and are highly likely to conduct post-election disinformation operations to create uncertainty and undermine the election process.
"Foreign actors, particularly Russia, Iran and China, remain intent on fanning divisive narratives to divide Americans and undermine Americans' confidence in the U.S. democratic system. These activities are consistent with what these actors perceive to be in their interests, even as their tactics continue to evolve," said the official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
"The intelligence community expects foreign influence efforts with intensify in the lead up to Election Day, especially through social media posts," the official said.
Some of those posts are likely to be generated by artificial intelligence, said the official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity.
As an example the official pointed to a post on social media platform X earlier this month generated by what he called Russian influence actors that made an unverified allegation against Democratic vice presidential candidate and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
Intelligence agencies assessed that Russian influence actors created the content, the official said. A media review by the agencies showed "several indicators of manipulation" consistent with the actions of Russian actors, the official said.
(Reporting by Jonathan Landay and Patricia Zengerle; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
