According to a new study, there is a network of fictitious social media profiles that pretend to be wealthy American women who back Donald Trump. These identities have been on platform X (previously Twitter), where they have been exploiting stolen images of European beauty and fashion experts to give them a convincing online presence.
A group dedicated to uncovering online misinformation, the Center for Information Resilience (CIR), conducted the examination. The analysis was made public in anticipation of the next US presidential election in November 2024, as worries about the spreading of political misinformation are increasing.
The CIR’s findings show that 16 fake accounts were found to have used European influencer photos without permission. These accounts, which seemed to be a part of a larger effort, pushed their followers to vote for Trump by promoting pro-Trump content.
The investigation turned up 56 identities in all that appeared to be organizing campaigns that distributed this kind of material.These phony profiles go to considerable efforts to look real.
They make use of regular images from the influencers’ Instagram feeds, such ones showing them having fun at the beach or taking walks with their dogs. The captions for these photos then either express support for Trump or use campaign-related hashtags like #MAGA (Make America Great Again).
Some of these accounts have not only been praising Trump but also spreading false material on all sorts of political subjects. They have, for instance, circulated conspiracy theories regarding COVID-19 and vaccinations, tweeted false allegations about an attempted assassination of President Trump, and questioned the ethnicity of Kamala Harris, his electoral competitor.
Hundreds of thousands of people have viewed some of these false posts.For example, one account utilized pictures of Debbie Nederlof, a German fashion influencer. The fake account, identified as “Luna,” identified itself as a 32-year-old Trump fan. Nederlof expressed her disbelief and anger, claiming she had nothing to do with Trump or US politics and that she was ignorant of the unlawful use of her photographs.
Since joining X, then known as Twitter, in March, Luna, a resident of the battleground state of Wisconsin, gained a large number of followers. Her timeline has grown into a digital mouthpiece for the “Make America Great Again” movement, endorsing Republican talking points to her nearly 30,000 followers, who she refers to as “patriots,” and endorsing the re-election bid of former President Donald Trump.
She also spreads conspiracy theories about Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s opponent.”Would You Encourage Trump to Remain President indefinitely? Do you all share my support for Trump as president? On July 29, @Luna_2K24 shared a beach selfie in a white bikini and requested her followers to reply with an emoji of the American flag if they approved. There were about 54,000 views on the post.
However, Luna is a fake. The cheerful brunette that occasionally appears on @Luna_2K24’s timeline is Debbie Nederlof, a German fashion influencer who resides on the other side of the Atlantic and will not be casting a ballot in the US presidential election in November.
The 32-year-old single mother, who works two jobs to support her child—as a model to make money for her child’s education and as a social media manager at an engineering firm—was furious and upset that her face was being used to promote pro-Trump misinformation on X when CNN contacted her.
I was like,“To be honest, ‘what the f**k?’ was my reaction. That was my reaction, because I have nothing to do with the United States. With Trump, the political things over there. What the hell do I – from a small place in Germany – care about US politics?” she said.
Although impersonating someone else is against the site’s policies and can result in an account being permanently suspended, the platform has not answered inquiries for comment. This lack of action lines up with larger worries regarding the handling of false material on X, particularly when Elon Musk assumed control of the platform in 2022.
Musk, who has publicly backed Trump, is now under fire for permitting the spread of misleading information on X, particularly after cutting back content filtering and diminishing the importance of safety and trust teams.
As the US election approaches, the CIR report serves as a stark reminder of the dangers of online disinformation and the challenges in combating it on social media platforms.
It also underscores the need for platforms like X to take stronger action in preventing the spread of false and misleading content that can influence public opinion.
