Misinformation and attacks on Kamala Harris are spreading among Latinos. Since July 20, at least five narratives about Harris have been detected across social media platforms and messaging apps in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. These include new and recycled misogynistic and racist falsehoods first identified in 2016 and 2020.
The DDIA team looked at what was being said about Kamala Harris on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, X, WhatsApp, Telegram and Reddit the day of and in the 24 hours following President Joe Biden’s announcement – when he affirmed he would be stepping down from the 2024 race and endorsed Harris for the Democratic nomination. The below were identified within 24 hours of Biden’s announcement and are expected to continue to spread.
By recognizing patterns in narratives and types of attacks (especially those that get repeatedly used to delegitimize women in political office) we each have a part to play in stifling and preventing this type of content from penetrating our democratic discourse. Resist amplifying or engaging with false or misleading content online, and report sexist, racist, or violent content to the respective social media platforms when you come across it online.
Three politically-motivated misinformation narratives are likely to persist in the coming week:
Narrative: “Kamala Harris is an agent of the Deep State and a puppet being manipulated by the Soros family.”
Platforms where this type of content was identified: X, WhatsApp, Telegram
Reach: At least 67,000 users on WhatsApp and Telegram reached in 24h
Narrative: “Barack Obama hasn't endorsed Kamala Harris because he doesn't like her as a person or support her as a candidate.”
Platforms where this type of content was identified: YouTube, X, Facebook, WhatsApp and Telegram
Reach: At least 29,000 views of this content on Youtube and X, with similar content being shared on Facebook, WhatsApp and Telegram, in 24h
Narrative: “Joe Biden was forced out of the race as part of a broader plot among the left to commit electoral fraud.”
Related Claims:
There has been a coup within the Democratic Party.
The Democratic Party is broken.
Platforms where this type of content was identified: X, YouTube, WhatsApp, Telegram
Reach (note, for this section, the numbers correspond to broader discussions in English that may begin spreading in Spanish but have not yet begun to circulate at scale):
YouTube: Fox News posted at least four English-speaking videos suggesting a "coup against Joe Biden" in the first 24 hours after the announcement. These videos had 357,000 views in 24h.
Facebook: At least 394 posts with 44,000 interactions mentioned Biden AND coup in the first 24h.
Instagram: At least 72 posts with 110,000 interactions mentioned Biden AND coup. Many of them are screenshots taken from X.
Telegram: Six public channels with more than 593,000 members in total have potentially seen messages about a "coup against Biden" in the last 24h. Memes like the one below are spreading in these spaces.
The meme of the imaginary coup (below) is made from a representation of Julius Caesar’s assassination. On March 15, 44 BC (the Ides of March), in Rome, Caesar was stabbed to death by a group of Roman senators led by Brutus and Cassius. The assassination was motivated by concerns over Caesar’s growing power and his intention to crown himself as king. In the meme that is going viral, Joe Biden is Caesar, Barack Obama and George Soros are Brutus and Cassius, and Kamala Harris, Hillary Clinton and Gavin Newsom are in the back, laughing at the scene.
Two misogynistic and racist narratives are being used to attack the credibility and character of the Vice President:
Narrative: “Kamala Harris's professional success is the result of an affair she had with a married man, (i.e., she slept her way to the top.)”
This narrative is mostly spread through graphic imagery of Harris performing oral sex on a man, an image that is now being sold as a lawn sign in some far-right wing “patriotic” spaces online.
Platforms where this type of content was identified: YouTube, Reddit, Facebook, X, WhatsApp, Telegram
Reach: At least 67,000 users reached in 24h
Narrative: “Kamala Harris is not African American.”
Related Claims:
Kamala Harris was raised in Canada
Kamala Harris’s family owned slaves
Kamala Harris has sent hundreds of black citizens to jail.
Platforms where this type of content was identified: X, Reddit, Telegram, and e-commerce sites
Reach: At least 49,000 users reached in 24h
Most women in politics are subjected to unimaginable online vitriol, especially during electoral cycles. From lies spread about her, to outright attacks both personal and professional, Vice President Kamala Harris has been the target of disinformation and hate rhetoric for years, including in Latino spaces online. In the coming months, DDIA will follow the evolution of the above narratives. Please don’t hesitate in reaching out to us for resources on how to combat misinformation in Latino communities.
Methodology:
DDIA has a robust narrative analysis methodology that includes the use of three social listening tools: Palver, Newswhip, and Crowdtangle. For the purposes of this analysis, DDIA research consultant Cristina Tardaguila used a combination of search queries to cover as much content as possible. DDIA also used google image reverse search, tin eye, bing, yandex, and invid to look into images that we detected in previous searches inside the three tools.
Note: narrative analysis research is rarely representative of the entire information ecosystem, but it does give us a glimpse into how information circulates online and between platforms.
Crowdtangle - DDIA conducted a temporal search of content shared between 9:00 a.m., ET, Sunday, July 21 and 9:00 a.m., Monday, July 22. The content was filtered for Spanish-language and references to Kamala Harris, then manually analyzed.
Newswhip - DDIA monitored 400+ Latinos accounts, platform by platform, to observe discussions taking place about Kamala Harris.
Palver - keyword search 'Kamala' and Spanish, filtered to the United States. On Palver, DDIA monitors 1,100+ public WhatsApp groups and over 400 public Telegram channels that use Spanish and Portuguese as their primary language and comprise at least 30% phone numbers based in the United States (+1). Note: DDIA does not have insight into account names or locations. Monitoring is done in partnership with Palver.