As Harris moves to secure the Democratic nomination, misinformation follows soon after online
A review of social media analytics of nearly 175,000 posts on X between 6 and 7 p.m. ET on Sunday that mentioned Vice President Harris in relation to President Biden’s announcement found that 8.3 percent of the posts used ‘racialized’ language in referring to Harris, while 4.5 percent posts used ‘sexualized’ language.
CNN
Within minutes of President Joe Biden endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to replace him on the Democratic Party’s ticket on Sunday, the internet crackled with lies, altered photos and other misleading claims about Harris.
Some supporters of former President Donald Trump – the Republican nominee in the November election – even suggested Biden was the victim of a coup.
Meanwhile, a slew of slickly edited pro-Harris videos quickly proliferated on social media as her backers tried to capitalize on the moment.
The vitriol and counter-punches are a likely preview of the final three months of the presidential campaign, where a furious battle to shape and smear Harris’ image will play out at a moment where social media platforms have weakened guardrails on disinformation.
“As Kamala Harris becomes increasingly likely to be the presumptive presidential nominee for the Democratic Party and gains more public spotlight, the corresponding amount of disinformation and misleading rhetoric will grow exponentially,” Erik Nisbet, a professor at Northwestern University’s School of Communication, told CNN.
On X, owner Elon Musk fanned an antisemitic conspiracy theory by replying to a photo of Harris and Alexander Soros, son of the billionaire megadonor George Soros, by suggesting that Harris would be a “puppet” of the Soros family. Musk endorsed Trump this month and has been pumping out pro-Trump content to his roughly 190 million followers.
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