Foreign adversaries used increasingly sophisticated meddling operations to target the November 5 U.S. presidential race between Democratic party candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and her Republican party opponent, former President Donald Trump.
Iran has sought to influence and interfere with the results of the poll by promoting disinformation narratives favorable to its own foreign policy goals.
The societal division in the U.S. and predictions of "post-election unrest," as well as depictions of the United States’ support for Israel in the ongoing Israel-Hamas war as Americans’ historic "support for genocide," dominated the Iranian state-controlled media coverage of the U.S. elections.
An Iran-operated network of social media accounts and fake news sites targeted U.S. voters on opposite ends of the political spectrum with polarizing messaging.
In the days before the election, Press TV, a state-owned English language outlet, has run analyses and news items depicting the United States as a "defunct" nation, which the presidential elections only amplified.
"As America heads to the polls, the only certainty seems to be that division, disunity, dissatisfaction and maybe even disfunction aren’t going away anytime soon," Press TV analyst Ramin Mazaheri said in a November 4 report that exemplifies the overall coverage.
Iran has long accused Israel of committing genocide in the Gaza Strip. Israel says it is Iran who is responsible for the violence in Gaza and Lebanon, citing Tehran’s decades-long effort to destroy Israel via proxy forces.
Tehran-based commentator Alireza Akbar wrote for Press TV that in supporting Israel, both Harris and Trump are no exception from their predecessors and that "US presidents have always been on the side of genocide, massacres and holocausts."
Speaking with Press TV in October, U.S. academic and Libertarian presidential candidate Michael Rectenwald likewise said "[b]oth Harris and Trump will continue to support Israel's psychopathic genocidal rampages."
Press TV has repeatedly promoted the narrative that Harris’ support for Israel could cost her the election among Muslim voters, and repeated claims she is responsible for civilian deaths in the Gaza Strip.
In one November 4 report, Press TV correspondent Mazaheri said that "Vice President Kamala Harris’ participation in the Gaza genocide has shocked voters of all types," adding "polls show Muslim Americans are capable of tipping the balance."
The Israel-Hamas war, and its impact on civilians in the Gaza Strip, is a key issue for Arab and Muslim American voters, particularly in Michigan, a key swing state.
During a rally in Michigan on Sunday, Harris vowed to do "everything in her power" to stop the Israel-Hamas war if elected president.
Sources told The Times of Israel in late October that Trump wanted the war in Gaza to conclude before he returns to office if he wins the election.
Researchers at Microsoft found disinformation narratives similar to those on Press TV being amplified by covert news sites and social media accounts.
Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC) reported on October 23, that its researchers discovered an "Iranian operated cyber persona" called "Bushnell’s Men," named after Aaron Bushnell, who died after setting himself on fire outside Israel’s embassy in Washington, D.C., in February.
Microsoft reported ‘’Bushnell’s Men’’ attempted to foment anti-Israeli protests in the United States and Europe, and had called on call on Americans to "sit out the elections."
Microsoft also reported that "four websites masquerading as news outlets are actively engaging US voter groups on opposing ends of the political spectrum with polarizing messaging on issues such as the US presidential candidates, LGBTQ rights, and the Israel-Hamas conflict."
One of those websites with a left-leaning bent, called Nio Thinker, published an article criticizing the "democratic party’s deafening silence on Palestine," Al Monitor reported.
While Harris features prominently in more recent Press TV reports, U.S. intelligence agencies and the Microsoft researchers earlier documented how Iranian cyber-enabled influence operations have sought to undermine the campaign of Trump in this and previous elections.
That included what the Department of the Treasury in September called Iranian state-sponsored "spear-phishing" and "hack-and-leak operations" intended to "undermine confidence in the United States’ election processes and institutions and to interfere with political campaigns."
A September New York Times report found that Iran’s targeting of President Joe Biden and Harris along with Trump may reflect "a wider goal of sowing internal discord and discrediting the democratic system in the United States more broadly in the eyes of the world."
That report cited two Iranian officials who said Tehran was "unconcerned" over who won the presidential race, claiming "Washington's animosity transcends either political party."
In July, U.S. Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines warned that Iran "is seeking to stoke discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions," and "opportunistically take advantage of ongoing protests regarding the war in Gaza."
