A fake Warren supporter spread a doctored photo on Twitter. Her campaign couldn't stop it.

[Eugene]

Title on the WaPo home page: A fake Warren supporter spread a doctored photo on Twitter. Her campaign couldn’t stop it.

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Source: Washington Post

Opponents of Elizabeth Warren spread a doctored photo on Twitter. Her campaign couldn’t stop its spread.

The reaction to the tweet, viewed hundreds of times, offers a hard lesson: Homespun disinformation campaigns on social media represent a rising threat

By Isaac Stanley-Becker and Tony Romm
11/27/2019, 11:33:57 a.m.

A tweet from liberal activists touting Elizabeth Warren drew what seemed like a typical response from one of the Democratic presidential candidate’s fans this September:

“Thank you for endorsing Elizabeth Warren!!!” the user wrote, sharing a photo of black women holding “African Americans with Warren” signs.

The post gained only a single retweet at the time. But it found new life this past weekend, making its way to sharp-eyed Twitter users who realized it was fake, with the campaign placards photoshopped over Black Lives Matter signs.

Twitter users seized on a side-by-side comparison of the doctored version and the original, assailing the Warren campaign for the apparent misrepresentation. What they did not realize was that the account that had propagated the photo has been identified by the Warren campaign as a “troll,” only feigning support for the Massachusetts Democrat as it pushed out falsified content in an apparent effort to undermine her candidacy.

As the image solidified negative views of Warren among some who favor other Democratic candidates, the incident offered a fresh lesson about political disinformation: Homespun operations on social media represent a rising threat, capable of inciting conflict among voters and turning unwitting users into agents of online deception.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/11/27/opponents-elizabeth-warren-spread-doctored-photo-twitter-her-campaign-couldnt-stop-its-spread/

[blm]

2. Anti-Warren campaigners will spread anything negative they can find,

based on my observations.

[BlueMTexpat]

6. The sad thing is that

some of these are Dems.

[Buzz cook]

3. By now it should be second nature

to double check any claim seeking to stoke outrage about anyone

[redqueen]

4. That BS tweet has been around for months.

Most react exactly as expected - not tweeted by anyone with the campaign - so it's got nothing to do with Warren.

Nice try Bezos.

[brer cat]

5. What does Bezos have to do with this incident? nt

[unitedwethrive]

7. Because "they" know that we are too quick to go after each other. Remember the goal AT ALL TIMES

is to beat trump. Don't fall for divisiveness! Anything you see putting down a Dem is likely not from a Dem, or in the rare chance it is, it mostly gets spread by the other side.

I'm impressed and awed by the intelligence of Buttigieg, but try not to pay too much attention to negative things about the other candidates, as I might be supporting them someday.