Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona warns voters about ‘huge amount’ of foreign misinformation

PHOENIX – As Election Day draws near, U.S. Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona is warning voters about political misinformation being peddled online by foreign actors.

The Democrat told CBS’ “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that the issue impacts not only Arizona, but other battleground states.

“It’s the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians, and it’s significant,” Kelly said during an interview aired Sunday. “We need to do a better job getting the message out to the American people that there is a huge amount of misinformation.”

Kelly wants the public to know that hostile nations are behind a good chunk of the political content and comments they see on popular social media platforms such as X, TikTok, Facebook and Instagram.

“There is a very reasonable chance, I would put it in the 20-30% range, that the content you are seeing, the comments you are seeing, are coming from one of those three countries: Russia, Iran, China,” he said.

Just because the posts come from somebody who appears to be American doesn’t mean it’s not a foreign actor trying to manipulate the public.

“It could look like a U.S. service member,” Kelly, a former Navy pilot, noted.

How are foreign actors peddling political misinformation?

Last week, the head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division told CBS News that Russia, Iran and China are using sophisticated techniques, including artificial intelligence, to peddle political misinformation. For example, Matthew Olsen said Russians have used the hot button topic of immigration “as a wedge issue” to sow discord among Americans.

Additionally, foreign actors have allegedly manipulated U.S. internet personalities to further their means. In September, the Justice Department filed an indictment alleging that a media company linked to six conservative influencers was secretly funded by Russian state media employees.

US intelligence agencies worried about political misinformation

Kelly, who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the threat of propaganda was discussed during a recent hearing with the heads of the FBI, the National Security Agency and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Sen. Mark Kelly says feds need to do a "better job" of letting Americans know "there's a huge amount of misinformation" on election https://t.co/tM42sfpkoU

— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 7, 2024

He said it’s up to government officials to inform the public about how malicious the political misinformation efforts are.

“It’s up to us, the people who serve in Congress and the White House, to get the information out there that there is a tremendous amount of misinformation in this election, and it’s not going to stop on Nov. 5,” he said.

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