In the lead up to the US Presidential election, bots opposing Kamala Harris appear to be sending text messages to potential Democrat or undecided voters. An X user first shared the Trump bots late on Sunday 3 November. At first glance they appeared to be from the Harris/Walz campaign:
Kamala people have been texting me all weekend to make sure I know how much she hates Palestinians. Behold, the Democrats’ final push to win Pennsylvania:
— @ kumars on bluesky (@KumarsSalehi) November 4, 2024
this is disgusting pic.twitter.com/3GawWukBug
— @ kumars on bluesky (@KumarsSalehi) November 4, 2024
CNN also reported that:
Ads running in Pennsylvania, where undecided Jewish voters could factor into the state’s outcome, highlight how she will “stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself.” Meanwhile, ads targeted in Michigan, with its large Arab American population, highlight how “she will not be silent about the human suffering occurring in Gaza.”
However, upon further reflection it seems that the messaging may be an attempt from an opponent to deter people from voting for Harris by using Trump bots:
ladies and gentlemen, they got me. I apologize for contributing to election misinformation and will keep my tweets up as a public record of how stupid I am
— @ kumars on bluesky (@KumarsSalehi) November 4, 2024
A long-term campaigns organiser spotted some oddities in the seeming Trump bot text message that set off a few alarm bells:
Dude that’s a Republican op, not the Harris campaign. Just the tiniest amount of critical thinking will lead you to that extremely obvious conclusion.
— Evan Sutton (@3vanSutton) November 4, 2024
First of all, the language. None of it is reflective of how Harris messages the issue.
-She talks about Israel’s right to self defense, not “waging war in Gaza.”
-The scripts overall are a mess.
-The Harris campaign wouldn’t be sending people to a Times of Israel article.— Evan Sutton (@3vanSutton) November 4, 2024
But, sHe CAn cOuNT on YoUr SUpPorT, RiGHt?
There have been a ton of dat leaks lately. While it’s 1000% possible that this is Killer Kamala’s campaign, sharing Times of Israel and entirely ignoring what you say to continue promising to genocide Palestinians? Idk, that very, very off. 👇
— MyName (@Nurse_Tawny) November 4, 2024
This one here is beyond blatant. No campaign would send this message to anyone, anywhere. The entire thing is an op designed by some GOP rstfucker to inflame the situation pic.twitter.com/MgQshdUaB7
— Evan Sutton (@3vanSutton) November 4, 2024
I’ve been working in campaigns for 17 years. I’ve seen some bad ones and stupid choices. I can tell you with 100% certainty that this is a Republican ratfucking operation. Sharing it on the internet while blaming the Harris campaign is giving them even more than they hoped for
— Evan Sutton (@3vanSutton) November 4, 2024
But is it any wonder when both Biden and Harris have been raging pro-Israel genocide cheerleaders? See: bombs, back-up military support, and the whole range of bullshit excuses they’ve made on Israel’s behalf:
It’s understandable that people would fall for this, since the Biden administration/Harris campaign have actually said worse things proudly. And their actions have spoken the loudest.
— Touran (@Touri777) November 4, 2024
So are you saying that Kamala doesn’t support the genocide, and that she hasn’t been talking out of both sides of her mouth?
— kolhii enjoyer (@welcome2onukoro) November 4, 2024
Whether or not it’s a Republican op is irrelevant. Harris still supports exterminating the Palestinians and no amount of campaigning or messaging will change that
— B🇵🇸 (@SumacSeedo) November 4, 2024
So, it very well may be some Republicans (or even Russians) up to some dirty democracy-undermining tricks via these Trump bots. Of course, it’d be entirely in-step with its convicted felon nominee who tried to overturn the result of the last election. It might that be a sign the Republicans are getting worried.
Either way though, the false campaign texts aren’t really saying anything that isn’t true. Whether Harris or Trump wins this election, Palestinians lose. It doesn’t take a dodgy disinformation campaign to tell US voters who give a shit about Gaza that much.
Feature image via the Canary
