Tag: kamala harris

Joe Biden, Kamala Harris Got a Big Social Media Boost from Indian Troll Farms

Joe Biden’s Twitter account got a sizable boost beginning in August from tens of thousands of fake followers purchased on the open market from troll farms in rural India, an investigation has found.

Within two weeks of Biden selecting Kamala Harris as his running mate on August 12, his Twitter following jumped by 738,595 new followers—a 9.1 percent leap. The number hit 11 million by the third week of October.

A close examination has revealed unusual patterns. A large number of Twitter accounts that followed Biden’s appear to have been created exclusively for that purpose. And a large number of the users are located in small towns in rural India—in places where English-speakers are rare, and from handles run by people who don’t speak English as their first language, nor appear to be genuinely invested in American politics.

A Zenger News investigation reveals that Biden’s increasing social media footprint in India came from the country’s infamous troll farms boosting his candidacy.

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Make America Cringe Again

Other than the fly that landed on Pence’s head, and stayed there for a hypnotising two minutes, Harris’s sassy deflections of the vice-president’s non-interruptions were key moments of the night. And not in a good way. While liberal cable news channels clipped the exchanges, and Twitter proclaimed ‘SLAY KWEEN’, I’m sure many voters were reminded of the kind of identitarian posturing from Democrats that they have come to loathe.

Harris has particular form in this regard, proving herself willing to throw around accusations of bigotry (and worse) to score political points and damage her opponents. Even her now running mate hasn’t been spared this. In one debate during the Democratic primary, she essentially called Joe Biden a racist over his former opposition to bussing. She also said, prior to the primaries, that she ‘believed’ the women who had accused him of sexual assault.

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