Her timeline has become a “digital mouthpiece” for the “Make America Great Again” movement, praising former President Donald Trump’s re-election bid, promoting conspiracy theories about his rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, and advancing the Republican argument in almost 30,000 followers, whom he calls “patriots”.
“Would you support Trump being President forever? I wonder if you all support Trump for President like me,” @Luna_2K24 posted on July 29 alongside a selfie. The young woman asked her followers to respond with an American flag emoji if they agreed. About 54,000 users they saw this post.
However, Luna is not real. Photos of the smiling brunette posted on @Luna_2K24’s profile are of Debbie Netherloff, a German fashion influencer who lives on the other side of the Atlantic and will not be voting in the US presidential election in November. When CNN spoke with the 32-year-old optician and single mother who works two jobs — as a social media manager at an engineering company and as a model to make ends meet — she said she was angry and disappointed that some people used her face to promote the pro-Trump propaganda on X.
“To be honest, I said ‘what the hell’.” That was my reaction, because I have nothing to do with the United States, or Trump, or the political stuff there. Why should I – being from a small German town – care about US politics?” he stated.
Netherlof has raised the issue several times on the platform but has been repeatedly disappointed.
“They always say there’s not enough evidence that it’s a fake account,” he said.
Netherlof is one of 17 European women fashion and beauty influencers from Holland, Denmark and Russia – whose online photos have been stolen by strangers to promote Trump and his vice presidential pick Jay Dee Vanceon the X platform, as research by CNN and the Center for Information Resilience (CIR) reveals. CIR is an independent, not-for-profit social enterprise committed to the disclosure of human rights violations. It receives funding for individual projects from governments, NGOs and individuals.
Fake accounts are among 56 profiles in X detected by CNN and CIR, using a mix of digital detection and reverse image search tools, as it appears to be part of a coordinated campaign supporting Trump ahead of the 2024 presidential election. However, there is no indication that Trump’s staff is involved.
Experts say this could only be the tip of the iceberg. An analysis of 56 of these accounts revealed one systematic pattern of inauthentic behavior. All accounts use photos of beautiful, young women. Many of them have been stolen, while others appear to have been created with artificial intelligence.
These women are declaring their support for Trump and using hashtags like #MAGAPatriots, #MAGA2024 and #IFBAP (I Follow Back All Patriots). In several cases, CNN and CIR found that the photos had been doctored to add pro-Trump slogans to different, non-branded clothing.
Orchestrated effort
The accounts post with similar messages, which often include errors in the English language (possible clue foreign interventionaccording to experts) and are often republished on other platforms. Most of the profiles have been created in the last few months and have managed to attract a significant number of followers.
CNN reached out to X, but did not hear back. However, in the last 24 hours before the survey was published, the platform removed the majority of these accounts.
Who are behind these fake profiles?
Emily Horn, former head of global policy communications at Twitter and former senior press director at the National Security Council in the Biden administration, said these accounts have characteristics that could be consistent with a state agent, although he could not confirm this.
“The level of sophistication shows that it could be any of the hostile state actors, including Russia, Iran and ChinaHorn said. “We know there are a lot of state actors using social media to create campaigns misinformation ahead of the 2024 elections,” he added.
Former Facebook director of public policy Katie Harbath and Horne pointed out that what’s interesting is the systemic misogyny which facilitates the promotion of such kinds of social media profiles.
“Posts with images of women tend to generate greater engagement with some of the target audiences for this type of content, particularly young and disaffected males who may be more politically inclined to engage with this type of content,” Horne said.
Neterlof wonders if there will ever be policies that will truly protect women online.
“Every day they steal my face, my body, my photos, my identity and it drives me crazy. It’s definitely not me, it’s definitely never been me, and it will never be me, and (people) need to stop following the fake account,” the young woman concluded.
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