{"id":819801,"date":"2025-01-14T09:12:36","date_gmt":"2025-01-14T15:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/14\/us-imposes-sanctions-on-entities-in-iran-russia-over-election-interference\/"},"modified":"2025-01-14T09:12:36","modified_gmt":"2025-01-14T15:12:36","slug":"us-imposes-sanctions-on-entities-in-iran-russia-over-election-interference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/14\/us-imposes-sanctions-on-entities-in-iran-russia-over-election-interference\/","title":{"rendered":"US imposes sanctions on entities in Iran, Russia over election interference"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"primary\">\n<article id=\"post-2864950\">\n<p><template id=\"tmpl-rappler-speechify-button-play\"><br \/>\n\t<\/template><\/p>\n<p><template id=\"tmpl-rappler-speechify-button-upgrade\"><\/p>\n<p><\/template><\/p>\n<p><template id=\"tmpl-rappler-speechify-cta\"><\/p>\n<p>Already have Rappler+? <br \/> to listen to groundbreaking journalism.<\/p>\n<p><\/template><\/p>\n<div>\n<div id=\"ai-summary-section-container\">\n<p id=\"ai-summary-warning-label\">This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p><img width=\"2560\" height=\"1707\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rappler.com\/tachyon\/2024\/12\/US-Elections-2024-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"US imposes sanctions on entities in Iran, Russia over election interference\" fetchpriority=\"high\" loading=\"eager\" decoding=\"async\"  ><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t2024 US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS. Voting booths stand during the 2024 US presidential election on Election Day at the Detroit Police Department, Twelfth Precinct in Detroit, Michigan, US, on November 5, 2024.\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tEmily Elconin\/Reuters\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p><em>(1st UPDATE) The US Treasury Department says the Moscow-based Center for Geopolitical Expertise circulated disinformation about candidates in the election and directed and subsidized the creation of deepfakes<\/em>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>WASHINGTON, DC, USA \u2013 The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rappler.com\/world\/us-canada\/n08687930-united-states-of-america\/\">United States<\/a> on Tuesday, December 31, imposed sanctions on entities in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rappler.com\/world\/middle-east\/n83433140-iran\/\">Iran<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rappler.com\/world\/europe\/n47248146-russia\/\">Russia<\/a>, accusing them of attempting to interfere in the 2024 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rappler.com\/world\/us-canada\/elections\/\">US election<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The US Treasury Department in a statement said the entities \u2014 a subsidiary of Iran\u2019s Revolutionary Guards Corps and an organization affiliated with Russia\u2019s military intelligence agency \u2014 aimed to \u201cstoke socio-political tensions and influence the US electorate during the 2024 US election.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Governments of Iran and Russia have targeted our election processes and institutions and sought to divide the American people through targeted disinformation campaigns,\u201d Treasury\u2019s Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Bradley Smith said in the statement.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe United States will remain vigilant against adversaries who would undermine our democracy.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Iran\u2019s mission to the United Nations in New York and Russia\u2019s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n<p>Republican <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rappler.com\/people\/p39839355-donald-trump\/\">Donald Trump<\/a> was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rappler.com\/world\/us-canada\/donald-trump-elected-united-states-president-stunning-comeback\/\">elected<\/a> president in November, beating Democratic candidate <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rappler.com\/people\/p82722684-kamala-harris\/\">Kamala Harris<\/a> and capping a remarkable comeback four years after he was voted out of the White House.<\/p>\n<p>The Treasury said the Cognitive Design Production Center planned influence operations since at least 2023 designed to incite tensions among the electorate on behalf of the IRGC.<\/p>\n<p>The Treasury accused the Moscow-based Center for Geopolitical Expertise (CGE) of circulating disinformation about candidates in the election as well as directing and subsidizing the creation of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rappler.com\/topic\/deepfakes\/\">deepfakes<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Treasury said CGE also manipulated a video to produce \u201cbaseless accusations concerning a 2024 vice presidential candidate.\u201d It did not specify which candidate was targeted.<\/p>\n<p>The Moscow-based center, at the direction of the GRU, used generative AI tools to quickly create disinformation distributed across a network of websites that were designed to look like legitimate news outlets, the Treasury said.<\/p>\n<p>It accused the GRU of providing financial support to CGE and a network of US-based facilitators in order to build and maintain its AI-support server and maintain a network of at least 100 websites used in its disinformation operations.<\/p>\n<p>CGE\u2019s director was also hit with sanctions in Tuesday\u2019s action.<\/p>\n<p>An annual US threat assessment released in October 2024 said the United States sees a growing threat of Russia, Iran, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rappler.com\/world\/asia-pacific\/n81633472-china\/\">China<\/a> attempting to influence the elections, including by using artificial intelligence to disseminate fake or divisive information. <strong>\u2013 Rappler.com<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div id=\"moodmeter\">\n<div>\n<p>How does this make you feel?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><span>Loading<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>\t<template id=\"cx_after-article-template\"><\/p>\n<article data-is-main-site=\"{{item.mainsite}}\">\n<p><h3>{{ item.sitename }}<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<p>\t<\/template>\n\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> Reuters<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.rappler.com\/world\/us-canada\/us-sanctions-iran-russia-election-interference\/\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Already have Rappler+? to listen to groundbreaking journalism. This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article. 2024 US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTIONS. Voting booths stand during the 2024 US presidential election on Election Day at the Detroit Police Department, Twelfth Precinct in Detroit, Michigan, US, on November 5<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":819802,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35353,12],"tags":[18613,5070],"class_list":{"0":"post-819801","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-imposes","8":"category-sanctions","9":"tag-imposes","10":"tag-sanctions"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=819801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/819802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=819801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=819801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=819801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}