Microsoft has revealed that a fabricated hit-and-run story involving Kamala Harris was orchestrated by a Kremlin-aligned troll group. The group, dubbed Storm-1516 by the Mountain View-based tech giant, created and spread a false narrative through a fake San Francisco news outlet, KBSF-TV – part of a larger Russian strategy to sway public opinion ahead of the upcoming U.S. presidential election on November 5.
The fabricated story claimed that Harris had been involved in a 2011 hit-and-run accident that left a 13-year-old girl paralyzed, a claim that quickly gained traction on social media platforms like X (formerly known as Twitter) under the hashtag #HitAndRunKamala. The video at the center of the hoax, which featured an actor posing as the alleged victim, amassed over 2.7 million views.
“Numerous actors within the pro-Russian network helped to spread the video and its narrative,” noted Microsoft’s Threat Analysis Center, adding that “Storm-1516 depends on figures like Aussie Cossack – who describes himself as a “Registered foreign agent for Sputnik News” – to boost the visibility of its content.”
Microsoft’s research outlines how Storm-1516 operates by producing videos that feature actors posing as whistleblowers or journalists. These figures spread scandalous, untrue stories designed to damage the reputations of public figures. In this case, the group created a website for the fictitious news station KBSF-TV just before releasing its first story about the alleged driving incident. According to Microsoft, Storm-1516 struggled to adjust its influence campaigns after President Biden left the 2024 presidential race but quickly shifted its focus to target Harris, the Democratic candidate, and Tim Walz, her running mate.
“Russian influence operations initially struggled to pivot after Biden’s departure,” Microsoft wrote in a blog post on Tuesday. “By late August, however, Storm-1516 was producing outlandish conspiracy theories implicating Harris and Walz.”
Russian state media outlet RT has also come under scrutiny recently, with two of its employees facing money-laundering charges for their involvement in a scheme to hire a U.S. company to produce election-related misleading content. U.S. officials have long warned that Russia’s goal is to exploit political divisions and undermine public support for military aid to Ukraine—a key issue in the current political climate.
