The 2024 presidential campaign was filled with fake stories about Vice President Kamala Harris and her deputy Tim Walz in the final months, all spread by Donald Trump supporters. But these stories are nowhere more abundant than on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, which was acquired in 2022 by the far-right billionaire Elon Musk. We can expect the silly lies to worsen in the last two weeks of the campaign as Musk pumps millions into electing Trump.
What do we mean by silly lies? Take for example a recent story that quickly spread on X, claiming to be a testimonial from a former student of Tim Walz. The person in the video, falsely identified as a man named Matthew Metro, claimed to have been sexually assaulted by Walz. But anyone from Minnesota will immediately notice some major red flags. For starters, the person claimed to have been a student at Mankato West, the high school where Walz worked in the 90s and early 2000s. But the person mispronounced the word Mankato, and even the word Minnesota sounds strange somehow.
Why did this go viral? Because it was promoted by an X algorithm in the “For You” brief, as I personally witnessed on October 6th. But The Washington Post spoke to Matthew Metro, who apparently was named falsely by misinformation agents through an annual publicly available “yearbook”, and who now lives in Hawaii.
Metro, 45 years old, told The Washington Post, “It’s clear that it’s not me: the teeth are different, the hair is different, the eyes are different, the nose is different.” “I don’t know where they get this.”
Wired spoke to analysts who believe the video was part of a coordinated misinformation campaign with Russia called Storm-1516, which also falsely claimed that Harris was involved in a drug deal in San Francisco in 2011. But Wired also believes that the video was created using artificial intelligence technology, a fact not agreed upon by all experts. All we know for sure is that the video is clearly fake and is being organically spread on X.
Or take the widely circulated video claiming to be a bombshell about finding cocaine in the White House. Former right-wing spokespersons, without evidence, insisted that the cocaine must belong to Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s son. But since Biden dropped out of the race in July, many of the same conspiracy theories have been redirected to fit Harris in some way or another.
The video was made to look like a secret camera reveal, with green shading for night vision, convincing sounds, and a blurry face. But all these poorly executed details make the video clearly fake. First off, if this were a real secret video shared by Trump supporters, why hide the identity of someone in the White House during Biden’s tenure, especially if the camera is apparently hidden? The creators combined two different techniques, secret exposure and identity protection, which simply doesn’t make sense for the apparent purpose of this video when you think about its context even for a second.
Thus the cocaine found in the White House belonged to Kamala Harris… no wonder Joe Biden was angry….
There are also funny fake things in the video, such as the crowd noise for what is supposed to be a “bar.” Mobile phone videos have been around long enough now that we all know what background noises look like in different environments on camera. It is obvious that this file is just an audio file of background noises overlayed on top. It’s very pitiful.
The text is full of right-wing ways of talking about Harris, referring to her laugh and other things disliked by MAGA loyalists about the Vice President. Even the visual elements are just a vault for someone and not an actual footage.
The account named Zade Smith, using what appears to be an AI-generated profile picture, is one of many accounts that helped spread the fake video, garnering over two million views alone. There’s also a line that seems to be spreading on X across various accounts in a coordinated manner, recording millions of views to claim, even without the video: “New leaks indicate that Kamala Harris, not Hunter Biden, brought cocaine into the White House in 2023.”
Another story that recently spread on X is the claim that a whistleblower at ABC News has tapes proving improper coordination between Harris’ campaign and the news network before the presidential debate in September. The claim started through an account known as “The Black Insurrectionist,” but after spreading widely, the complaint included even a “written confession” poorly edited using Photoshop to pretend to validate the claims, which angered a large crowd of Trump supporters. Very enthusiastic. Even the whistleblower sent a message to House Speaker Mike Johnson, according to the Black Insurrectionist newspaper.
But even powerful right-wingers, like former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly, had to acknowledge that it looked fishy. When Kelly reached out to Johnson’s office, they confirmed that they had not received any such letter.
Kelly wrote on her website: “We can now confirm that the Speaker’s office did not receive the letter.” “We spoke with a source with direct knowledge who said that the Speaker’s office did not receive the document in question at all. Additionally, the supposed tapes were never published. The alleged whistleblower never came forward. We were told that a lawsuit may be filed. That did not happen.”
But that didn’t stop Trump from claiming collusion between the network and Harris’ campaign. It’s clear that this supposed whistleblower never came forward. The original account that first posted this nonsense was deactivated by whoever was running it at some point on or around October 18, according to BBC fact-checkers.
It’s not really surprising that people who want to elect Trump are spreading misleading information. They have been doing it for years. The only difference is that they are now getting substantial support from Musk to ensure that as many people as possible see their garbage on platforms like X.
On the other hand, the Trump campaign also spreads fake news even at official campaign events. During the weekend, Trump appeared at a McDonald’s location in Westerville-Trevose, Pennsylvania, where he claimed to be “working” at the restaurant. In reality, the McDonald’s location was closed, and supporters walked through the car line to make it look like they were surprised to see Trump serving food. The video of the event is more entertaining when you know this context, with people in different cars trying to act surprised by Trump’s presence there. Everything is staged to the last person.
Trump is also repeatedly spreading nonsense about everything from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to immigrants, sometimes combining the two lies, as he did on Monday while posing for photos in North Carolina.
Trump, while lying through his teeth, said: “Now, theoretically, they’re supposed to have it, but they spent a lot of money bringing in illegal immigrants, people who entered our country illegally, to the United States.” “And they took them and all the money they spent, numbers that nobody can believe. So they have no money for people living here.”
Trump helped fuel conspiracy theories about hurricanes Helen and Milton, which devastated people living in many southern states. But the Federal Emergency Management Agency distributed millions of aid to those affected by the hurricanes, regardless of what Trump says. Nearly $1.8 billion in federal funds were approved for individuals and communities affected by both Helen and Milton as of last week.
“The federal assistance for hurricane survivors includes $597 million to support survivors in repairing homes, replacing personal property, and other essential recovery efforts,” according to a press release from the Federal Emergency Management Agency dated October 16. “Additionally, over $934 million was approved for debris removal and emergency protective measures, which are necessary to save lives, protect public health, prevent further damages to public and private property.
There are precisely 15 days before the elections on November 5, and many people are already voting. But the opinion polls are so close that it’s clear it’s a close competition at this stage between Harris and Trump. Again, we are almost certain to see more dirty tricks on X in the coming weeks. But voters must take everything they see with caution, especially on social media platforms owned by billionaire MAGA donors who are contributing $75 million and growing to Trump.
