The US Department of Justice has charged two Iranian hackers with stealing the personal information of American voters in the 2020 election and spreading false information and threats. While the Department of Justice does not allege that these actions were taken on behalf of the Iranian government, it claims that the two hackers, pretending to be members of the white supremacist group known as “The Proud Boys,” sent emails to registered Democrats, threatening them with physical harm if they did not vote for Donald Trump. Likewise, the hackers also pretended to be “Proud Boys” when sending Facebook messages to registered Republicans, claiming that Democrats were going to illegally alter mail-in ballots to increase their chance of victory. 

Image Credit: The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) (Public Domain Mark 1.0)