Russia attacks 2026 midterm elections with forged Mother Jones deepfake video
How Russia Is Attacking the Midterms with a Mother Jones Deepfake
Russian disinformation network Matryoshka (also known as Storm-1679) spread a deepfake video on X impersonating Mother Jones, falsely claiming that the Democratic National Committee paid CNN head Mark Thompson $259 million to promote child gender transition; the video received 155,000 views within a day, and another account's repost gained an additional 50,000 views. The network had previously also fabricated videos of Sarah Jessica Parker, Julia Roberts, and other celebrities disparaging the Democratic Party, and impersonated media outlets such as CNN, The New York Times, and NPR to publish fake reports. Mother Jones, alerted by @antibot4navalny, filed a complaint with X, which has deleted the relevant posts.