The latest revelation about Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign reveals a disturbing tactic: manufacturing online support through a Discord server that organizes volunteers to flood social media with pro-Harris messages.

As reported by The Federalist, this approach, often pushing the boundaries of platform Terms of Service, aims to make Harris’ support appear far more widespread than it is. This strategy, known as “astroturfing,” allows the campaign to falsely generate a public consensus, which some argue teeters on the edge of election law violations.

Oct 29, 2024; Washington, DC, USA; Democratic Presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris delivers a campaign speech at the Ellipse in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2024. The location is the site where Donald Trump encouraged his supporters to fight like hell on Jan. 6, 2021 before rioters attacked the U.S. Capitol as Congress was convening to certify Joe Biden’s victory.. Mandatory Credit: Jack Gruber-USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

In a recent exposé, the campaign’s online influence efforts were shown to target Reddit’s algorithm, successfully pushing Harris-Walz content to the top of political discussions. But Reddit isn’t the only platform caught in the crosshairs.

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Harris’ team has taken a particular interest in X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, a key outlet for political discourse.

One user in the Harris-Walz campaign’s Discord server openly discussed the objective of “blocking [community notes] we don’t like”—a maneuver to silence or suppress information that casts the Harris campaign in a negative light.

Before Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, many users felt the platform often removed conservative content while allowing misinformation from left-leaning sources to slide by.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, speaks during a South by Southwest panel in Austin in 2018. SpaceX is planning a rocket engine production facility near Waco, Musk said on social media Saturday.

Musk’s introduction of the “Community Notes” feature aimed to change this by creating a transparent way to add context to tweets deemed misleading. Selected users suggest “notes” for posts, which, if positively rated, become permanent additions to the tweet, ensuring a fair and factual landscape.

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However, the Harris campaign seems determined to upend this system, as its X accounts regularly share misleading narratives, especially about Trump and his team.

Even CNN’s Daniel Dale, a known critic of Trump, called out the Harris campaign’s falsehoods. The lack of Community Notes on many of these misleading posts raises questions—could it be that campaign volunteers are being directed to downvote notes that challenge the narrative?

In one telling instance, a Community Note intended to correct a Harris campaign tweet quoting Trump out of context was voted down. The original tweet claimed Trump referred to opposing Americans as “dangerous,” while Trump’s actual comment targeted specific officials allegedly leaking Israeli military information.

Campaign staffer Timothy Durigan reportedly urged volunteers to suppress the accurate Community Note, favoring Harris’ narrative.

The Harris-Walz Discord has gone even further, providing members with a “Community Notes Training” module and access to a tool called “Reach,” which connects users’ social accounts to a library of campaign content for rapid sharing.

Vice President Kamala Harris is joined by Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz at a rally on Tuesday August 20, 2024 at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wis.

By controlling this flow, the campaign skirts authenticity, fostering a sense of artificial consensus through repetition.

Despite these coordinated efforts, manipulating Community Notes on X has been challenging. X’s algorithm works to prevent bias, making it harder for these tactics to succeed. Yet, this organized amplification is a clear violation of X’s guidelines, which prohibit the artificial boosting of content.

As Harris’ campaign charges toward Election Day, it seems determined to rely on digital illusions to mask waning grassroots support.

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