WASHINGTON: The United States has imposed sanctions on two groups linked to Iranian and Russian efforts to target American voters with disinformation ahead of this year\u2019s election.
\nTreasury officials announced the sanctions Tuesday, alleging that the two organizations sought to stoke divisions among Americans before November\u2019s vote. US intelligence has accused both governments of spreading disinformation, including fake videos, news stories and social media posts, designed to manipulate voters and undermine trust in US elections.
\n\u201cThe governments of Iran and Russia have targeted our election processes and institutions and sought to divide the American people through targeted disinformation campaigns,\u201d Bradley T. Smith, Treasury\u2019s acting undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said in a statement.
\nAuthorities said the Russian group, the Moscow-based Center for Geopolitical Expertise, oversaw the creation, financing and dissemination of disinformation about American candidates, including deepfake videos created using artificial intelligence.
\nIn addition to the group itself, the new sanctions apply to its director, who authorities say worked closely with Russian military intelligence agents also overseeing cyberattacks and sabotage against the West.
\nAuthorities say the center used AI to quickly manufacture fake videos about American candidates created scores of fake news websites designed to look legitimate and even paid US web companies to create pro-Russian content.
\nThe Iranian group, the Cognitive Design Production Center, is a subsidiary of Iran\u2019s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, US officials said, which the United States has designated a foreign terrorist organization. Officials say the center worked since at least 2023 to incite political tensions in the United States.
\nUS intelligence agencies have blamed the Iranian government for seeking to encourage protests in the US over Israel\u2019s war against Hamas in Gaza. Iran also has been accused of hacking into the accounts of several top current and former US officials, including senior members of Donald Trump\u2019s campaign.
\nIn the months ahead of the election, US intelligence officials said Russia, Iran and China all sought to undermine confidence in US democracy. They also concluded that Russia sought to prop up the ultimate victor Trump, who has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin, suggested cutting funds to Ukraine and repeatedly criticized the NATO military alliance.
\nIran, meanwhile, sought to oppose Trump\u2019s candidacy, officials said. The president-elect\u2019s first administration ended a nuclear deal with Iran, reimposed sanctions and ordered the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, an act prompting Iran\u2019s leaders to vow revenge.
\nRussian and Iranian officials have rejected claims that they sought to influence the outcome of the 2024 election.
\n\u201cRussia has not and does not interfere with the internal affairs of other countries,\u201d a spokesperson for Russia\u2019s embassy in Washington wrote in an email Tuesday.
\nA message left with officials from Iran was not immediately returned Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON: The United States has imposed sanctions on two groups linked to Iranian and Russian efforts to target American voters with disinformation ahead of this year\u2019s election. Treasury officials announced the sanctions Tuesday, alleging that the two organizations sought to stoke divisions among Americans before November\u2019s vote. US intelligence has accused both governments of spreading …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":74996,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74985"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74985\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74998,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74985\/revisions\/74998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74996"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}