With the countdown to Election Day, the CBS News Confirmed team investigates viral claims to separate fact from fiction.
One such claim began making the rounds after voters in Bucks County waited in long lines to receive on-demand ballots.
Social media users falsely claimed that two Bucks County Emergency Services officers depicted in a video were paid actors. The post claimed they were hired by the Republican National Committee as part of an effort to suppress voters.
The video shows officers placing a sign outside the Doylestown administration building as a voting line Tuesday for a walk around the block.
CBS News confirmed using online records, including Bucks County payroll information and public releases, that the officers are active peace officers for Bucks County Emergency Services.
“We’ve definitely seen a huge increase in misinformation online, especially in the last week,” said Rhona Tarrant, editor-in-chief of CBS News. “Pennsylvania has been a major focus for this misinformation.”
The CBS News Confirmed team is the fact checking of claims that are increasingly gaining ground on social media. Tarrant said in many cases information is posted out of context.
“What we often see are regular issues, for example long lines that have been completely taken out of context and people are claiming that this may be voter suppression or voter fraud,” she said. “It is our team’s job to investigate these claims and see what actually happened.”
As Election Day approaches, Tarrant warns you to be skeptical of what you see posted.
“When you’re scrolling through your feed, you see a claim, it sounds very dramatic, and it often sounds very believable, but wait a moment before you take it in, or before you share it,” she said. “Often the truth is just a little more complex.”
The CBS News Confirmed team has identified several viral videos shared by accounts with a history of spreading Russian disinformation, such as this fake video which purports to show election workers tearing up ballots in Bucks County.
On Friday, US intelligence agencies issued a new warning about Russia’s campaign for election interference. The agencies concluded that Russia was behind a video that began circulating on social media, falsely claiming Haitians were working illegally for Vice President Kamala Harris in Georgia.
In a joint statement from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the agencies said: “Expect Russia to create and release additional media content that will undermine global trust wants to undermine.” election integrity and American divisions” in the run-up to the election and months afterward.
CBS News Confirmed’s Erielle Delzer contributed to this report.
