Pro-Trump activists cash in on spreading conspiracy theories about Kamala Harris on Elon Musk’s X platform, a I study has found.
Prominent Maga (Make America Great Again) activists have cashed in on ads appearing alongside posts spreading wild lies, including a claim that the Democratic presidential candidate is “killing babies” as part of “a deal with Satan to the power”.
This is the latest in a series of I investigations that reveal how the billionaire tech tycoon profits from revenue from advertisements that appear alongside posts spreading hate and conspiracies on his social media platform.
I has identified a dozen prominent pro-Trump figures who are making money from ads appearing under their X posts. They regularly post tweets that spread misinformation and rack up millions of views.
This includes activists like Laura Loomer and Kevin Sorbo, who have more than 3.3 million followers between them. They have, among other things, has promoted baseless conspiracy theories that the vice president is not black and is having a high-profile affair with a politician to further her career. Their posts included claims that images of Harris had been altered with artificial intelligence (AI).
All of the posts mentioned in this piece come from account holders who are able to earn a portion of the revenue from ads that appear under their posts. The rest of the money goes to Musk’s X.
Loomer describes himself as a journalist, but often publishes conspiracy theories and disinformation.
One such post, which was published last month and received nearly 150,000 views, included a series of conspiracies: “Kamala is as brain dead as Biden. She pretends to be black, she has a documented history of giving Willie Brown blowjobs to climb up the ladder and she’s obsessed with killing babies.”
Loomer’s first claim that the Democratic presidential candidate is not black is one of the most repeated conspiracies swirling on X. This is despite the fact that Harris was born in the US state of California to Indian and Jamaican parents , making her the first black and Asian-American vice president.
Kevin Sorbo, an actor known for his starring role as Hercules on a popular nineties TV show who is now a Trump activist, echoed Loomer’s post, writing: “If Kamala is really black, ask her to say the N-word, let the people decide for themselves.”
He has posted a number of Harris-related conspiracies to his 2.1 million followers, with that post garnering 16 million views.
Another claim made by Loomer refers to a false rumor that Harris became successful in politics by having an illicit affair with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown. Harris and Brown had a relationship about three decades ago and more than a decade after he left his wife.
The third conspiracy in Loomer’s post is that Harris is “obsessed with killing babies”.
This extreme accusation is popular among staunchly anti-abortion pro-Maga supporters. Various posts from ad-enabled accounts have twisted the vice president’s pro-choice stance into outlandish claims that she benefits from women getting abortions and that she uses abortions and killing newborns as a blood sacrifice to gain power.
For example, right-wing activist Eric Metaxas, who has more than 210,000 followers on his monetized profile, wrote: “Abortion is a satanic ritual. Shedding the blood of the innocent is not a “choice”; it is a transactional agreement with Satan for power.
“That’s why Kamala & Walz [ Harris’ choice for vice president] wanting to kill babies until birth. And after. It hurts.”
The post has been viewed 23,000 times.
In the past 18 months, the cost of advertising on X has fallen as it has struggled to attract brands. Jack Moore, head of social at media agency Hatch Group, told Ad Week that advertisers now pay X $0.38 per ad. 1,000 impressions (views). This figure, in February 2023, was quoted elsewhere as $6.38.
However, analysis of I indicates that the potential ad revenue for a single post, such as Sorbo’s post with 16 million views, could bring in around $700 (£530), which would then be split between the profile and the platform. Many of these profiles send dozens of tweets a day, quickly accumulating views and dollars.
Other misinformation spread by similar monetized X profiles is that Harris is ineligible to run for president because of her heritage, with one post claiming, “Kamala Harris is not eligible to run for president .Neither of her parents were natural born US citizens”. It received 5.7 million views.
It’s a tactic similar to when Donald Trump demanded to see Barack Obama’s birth certificate in 2011, falsely claiming that the then US president was not American.
Posts like these are often accompanied by the hashtag #NotLikeUs, making it clear that the posters don’t think Harris is considered an American in their view.
Other Trump supporters are also spreading false claims that she is a “communist” and therefore seeks to turn America into a communist state and a “DEI hire” who was artificially placed in the role of vice president and presidential candidate solely as a diversity hire.
Another popular false claim is that Harris was a “border czar” who deliberately let “millions” of migrants into America. In 2021, President Biden assigned Vice President Harris with addressing the “root causes” of immigration from within Central America to deter people from ever attempting to cross into the United States, for example by raising funds to create job creation in the region. She was not in charge of the border police.
These conspiracy theories have woven themselves into mainstream political discourse, thanks in part to being echoed by former President Trump.
For example, he ignited the allegations surrounding Harris and Brown on his own social media site Truth Social. His comments prompted the White House to issue a statement dismissing Trump’s claim as “gross,” “disturbing” and “appalling.”
He has also made conspiratorial comments in interviews. During an appearance at the Black Journalists’ Convention, Trump questioned whether Harris was black and alleged that she insulted different communities.
He said: “I don’t know, is she Indian or black? I respect both, but obviously she’s not.”
Trump also poured fuel on rumors that Harris’ team had pushed AI images showing a large, cheering crowd greeting her from a plane. Dozens of experts have since debunked this, pointing to a filter as the main cause of distortion in the image.
Francesca Gentile, a researcher at the Center for Information Resilience (CIR), a non-profit organization that counters disinformation, said I the results were “extremely troubling” and the latest examples of hate spreading on X.
Ms Gentile said: “Perpetrators spread this type of disinformation against women politicians to shame, humiliate and silence them, as well as undermine their roles as politicians. The overall aim is to spread animosity against them and prevent them from holding power.”
She added that “by saying she’s a foreigner – the perpetrators are dressing her up as a danger and that she doesn’t have America’s best interests at heart.”
I reached out to Donald Trump, Laura Loomer, Kevin Sorbo, Eric Metaxas and a number of other profiles who spread misinformation identified during this investigation for comment, but they did not respond.
X was also contacted but did not respond for comment, other than an auto-reply email saying: “Busy now, please check back later”.