We support our Publishers and Content Creators. You can view this story on their website by CLICKING HERE.

If Kamala Harris and Democrats believe in anything, it’s truth and honesty. Just ask them, and they’ll tell you. To hear them tell it, they are the arbiters of truth and the mortal enemies of misinformation. This is especially true on social media, where the Democrats tirelessly defend us all from Russian collusion and the likes of notorious misinformation spreader Elon Musk! They promise that this isn’t a projection at all. They really mean it this time. They swear!

Advertisement

If you believe that, we’ve got a bridge to sell you in Brooklyn. It’s a great deal! Trust us, it’s true.

The Kamala Harris campaign has a history of manipulating information. Back in August, Fox News reported that talking points from the campaign were appearing on Google searches as if they were being reported by the Associated Press and other news organizations.

Google claimed that it was a glitch in its system that caused the ‘fake news’ headlines. Was Google complicit?

Recently, Donald Trump sat down for an interview with Joe Rogan. Rogan reported that the interview faced an ‘issue’ in which it could not be found when searched for on YouTube. Google claimed that there was a problem with the YouTube search function.

There was no evidence that the interview was intentionally suppressed and the issue has been resolved. Yes, we checked.

Recommended

Advertisement

The Federalist is now reporting on an investigation that claims that the Harris campaign staffers are using ‘astroturfing’ campaigns to manipulate information on Reddit.

Harris staffers and volunteers would coordinate posting in Reddit communities called subreddits. A pre-determined lead poster will post an article or pro-Harris message into a subreddit. Once posted other volunteers will ‘upvote’ (like) the post to create ‘karma’ which gives the post more reach.

‘Astroturfing’ is a political and marketing term that describes creating swarms of coordinated and/or paid messages and posts to deceptively create the illusion of support from ordinary people. Essentially, ‘astroturfing’ is the opposite of grassroots support.

The process was highly coordinated.

In this case, there is a team of volunteers who spam social media with posts that specifically promote Kamala. They then have other users pretend to be random individuals who just happened across the post and decided to comment. It’s no different than a shady company paying a team to write a bunch of fake Amazon reviews about their product to make it appear to be a better and more popular product than it is.

Advertisement

The article continues.

Kamala’s ‘Lead Posters’ (people who have demonstrated a ‘cultural’ knowledge of Reddit) then choose which links will resonate best with different Reddit communities. For instance, a link about ‘how Project 2025 impacts reproductive health’ will be directed towards communities with young women as their primary user base, whereas news about Kamala’s Fox News interview ‘winning over swing state voters’ gets directed to Reddit’s Democrat communities, and possibly to people living in swing states.

While these highly coordinated, highly exaggerated, artificially boosted, and completely misleading posts are not exactly honest, they aren’t illegal. It’s not clear if they violate any campaign rules.

They are, however, spam, and spam violates Reddit’s terms of service.

After their links have been collected and categorized, volunteer ‘Posters’ will take a handful of the links provided and post them to their assigned subreddits. Kamala’s posters, however, don’t simply spam links haphazardly. They use a calculated, sequential post timing metric to avoid Reddit’s built-in spam filters. Harris-Walz campaign volunteers often discuss their ban-avoidance tactics in their Discord server, while continuing to spam Reddit with their collected links.

It’s not clear if Reddit would take significant, if any, action if they were aware of this scheme.

Advertisement

It’s unknown if Reddit is aware of the policy violations being performed by the Harris-Walz campaign. While it’s possible that their accounts will be banned when their actions come to light, it is also entirely possible that Reddit is giving the Harris-Walz campaign free rein to violate the rules. In 2018, Reddit’s CEO Steve Huffman plainly stated in an interview with The New Yorker:

I’m confident that Reddit could sway elections. We wouldn’t do it, of course. And I don’t know how many times we could get away with it. But, if we really wanted to, I’m sure Reddit could have swayed at least this election, this once.

Just like Google with the Joe Rogan interview, there is no evidence Reddit was complicit with the Harris campaign staffers manipulating the platform.

It just looks shady.

Will any of this move the needle with less than a week left until the election? Reddit, as a rule, is very left-leaning already. All this effort may be just preaching to the choir if it’s limited to Reddit.

Advertisement

Could this, or something similar, be happening across social media platforms? It’s a scary thought.

What’s obvious about this game is the Harris campaign doesn’t play by the rules and that’s the truth!

Now, about that bridge.