Speaker 1: You're listening to Disinformed, a mini series from There Are
Speaker 1: No Girls on the Internet. I'm Bridget Todd. It brings
Speaker 1: me no pleasure to report that right wing media keeps
Speaker 1: on giving us great examples of how complete lies are created,
Speaker 1: spread and mainstreamed online. And this time it's about Vice
Speaker 1: President Kamala Harris. The New York Post alleged that unaccompanied
Speaker 1: miners who crossed the border were given copies of Harris's
Speaker 1: book as part of welcome kits. The story included a
Speaker 1: picture of Harris's children's book called Superheroes Are Everywhere, alongside
Speaker 1: a backpack and hygiene items on a cop at the
Speaker 1: Long Beach emergency intake site for unaccompanied miners. The story
Speaker 1: went viral, and importantly, it wasn't just promoted by fringe
Speaker 1: right wing conspiracy theorists. It was shared by mainstream Republican
Speaker 1: figures and elected officials, like the official GOP Twitter account,
Speaker 1: Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton and White House Republican whip Steve Scalise,
Speaker 1: who tweeted, is Kamala Harris profiting off the border crisis?
Speaker 1: Americans need to know? The story was picked up and
Speaker 1: repeated by other big conservative news outlets like Fox News
Speaker 1: and The Blaze. Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocey
Speaker 1: even asked White House Press Secretary Jensaki about it in
Speaker 1: a press conference. Every migrant child being brought to a
Speaker 1: shelter is being given a copy of her children's book
Speaker 1: Superheroes Are Everywhere? Do you know why that is? And
Speaker 1: if she is making any money off of that? They're
Speaker 1: talking about if they go to shelters or if they
Speaker 1: go to welcome kit. Apparently there's a copy of her
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen children's book, Superheroes Are Everywhere. I'd have to
Speaker 1: certainly check on that. Only none of it was true.
Speaker 1: The Washington Post confirmed that one copy of Harris's book
Speaker 1: that was donated not included in quote welcome kits, that
Speaker 1: was in that now viral photo, and that one photo
Speaker 1: was the basis for the entire fabrication that Harris's books
Speaker 1: were being included in welcome kits and the insinuation from
Speaker 1: Republican elected officials that Harris was personally making a profit
Speaker 1: from the situation at our border. The US Department of
Speaker 1: Health and Human Services said in a statement to Newsweek
Speaker 1: that the reference book was one of an assortment of
Speaker 1: hundreds of titles donated to the Long Beach Emergency Intake
Speaker 1: Site as part of a City of Long Beach New
Speaker 1: Books and Toys drive. No taxpayer dollars were used to
Speaker 1: purchase Vice President Harris's book. Kevin Lee, chief Public affairs
Speaker 1: officer for the city, also clarified that the city had
Speaker 1: no involvement in the books curation. It was just donated
Speaker 1: as part of their book and toy drive. The City
Speaker 1: of Long Beach, in partnership with the Long Beach Convention
Speaker 1: and Visitors Bureau, had a citywide book and toy drive
Speaker 1: that is ongoing to support the migrant children. He said,
Speaker 1: the single book you referenced is one of hundreds of
Speaker 1: various books that have already been donated. The book was
Speaker 1: not purchased by HHS or the city. Now, after the
Speaker 1: story was debunked, the reporter who wrote it, Laura Italiano, resigned,
Speaker 1: admitting that she'd been pressured into writing it, saying, the
Speaker 1: Kamala Harris story an incorrect story I was ordered to write,
Speaker 1: which I failed to push back hard enough against. Was
Speaker 1: my breaking point. Now the New York Post has not
Speaker 1: even officially attracted the story. Instead, they temporarily removed it
Speaker 1: from their site and then republished it with an editor's
Speaker 1: down at the bottom saying the original version of this
Speaker 1: article said migrant kids were getting Harris's book in a
Speaker 1: welcome kid, but that has been updated to note that
Speaker 1: only one known copy of the book was given to
Speaker 1: a child. This is completely insufficient when you consider the
Speaker 1: lie is already out there, and all of those prominent
Speaker 1: Republican figures I told you about earlier, their tweets are
Speaker 1: still up on Twitter as of me recording this episode.
Speaker 1: And here's why it's not really about this one lie.
Speaker 1: The data is clear that women of color, especially Black
Speaker 1: women in politics, faced a disproportionate amount of disinformation, especially
Speaker 1: lies in attacks that a lie on negative stereotypes about
Speaker 1: our gender and race. They paint us Black women as
Speaker 1: untrustworthy liars and rely on unfair attacks on our identities
Speaker 1: to fuel those lies. Even before Harris was named as
Speaker 1: Biden's running me, she was subjected to a flood of racist,
Speaker 1: sexist disinformation on social media, like posts that made racist
Speaker 1: claims that she wasn't even eligible to serve in the
Speaker 1: White House, or that she was lying about her black
Speaker 1: and Indian heritage. Intelligent software service Signal Labs found over
Speaker 1: one million mentions of Harris on Twitter since June that
Speaker 1: had hashtags or terms associated with misinformation about her. Now
Speaker 1: compare that to her white male counterparts. Misinformation accounted for
Speaker 1: less than one percent of Twitter talk when Mike Pence
Speaker 1: and Tim Caine were running for vice president, while misleading
Speaker 1: information about Harris is much more prevalent, making up more
Speaker 1: than four percent of the conversation about her on Twitter.
Speaker 1: And it's not just Harris. Gender disinformation campaigns are widespread
Speaker 1: for women in politics, and her report for the Wilson
Speaker 1: Center called Malign Creativity, How gender, sex and lies are
Speaker 1: weaponized against women online. Researcher Alexandra Pavlik found that gendered
Speaker 1: abuse affected twelve of thirteen research subjects, while nine out
Speaker 1: of thirteen subjects were targeted with gender disinformation in narratives.
Speaker 1: These narratives were racist, transphobic, and sexualized in nature. The
Speaker 1: overwhelming majority of the recorded keywords relating to the abuse
Speaker 1: and disinformation were identified on Twitter and directed toward Kamala Harris,
Speaker 1: who accounted for seventy eight percent of the total recorded instances.
Speaker 1: Her report also found that online abusers used evasive, tricky
Speaker 1: language like dog whistles, where they don't come right out
Speaker 1: and say they're racist or sexist thing in order to
Speaker 1: avoid detection by social media moderation tools. I'm talking about
Speaker 1: things like social media posts that refer to Kamala Harris
Speaker 1: as quote heals up Harris a sexist insinuation that she
Speaker 1: quote slept her way to the top, which is a
Speaker 1: common sexist line of attacks that Harris faces online. And
Speaker 1: here's why this is such a big problem for all
Speaker 1: of us, not just women. When attacks on women and
Speaker 1: women of color are allowed to fester and spread, it
Speaker 1: is a chilling effect on women's participation in politics and
Speaker 1: political discourse. It keeps us from running for office or
Speaker 1: even just speaking up about our political opinions online because
Speaker 1: who would want to volunteer to be attacked or become
Speaker 1: the target of a disinformation campaign just because of who
Speaker 1: you are. It keeps our entire country from being able
Speaker 1: to have a democracy or everyone women women of color
Speaker 1: are able to fully participate. And this isn't just a
Speaker 1: threat to women, it's a threat to all of us.
Speaker 1: Everyone is better served when all of us can be
Speaker 1: fully involved in our democracy. If we're ever going to
Speaker 1: create an equal playing field for the next generation of
Speaker 1: women in politics. We've got to create a digital media landscape,
Speaker 1: or racist sexist attacks are not widespread and are just
Speaker 1: not tolerated. Women, women of color, and black women deserve
Speaker 1: to be judged by our records, actions, and words, not sexist,
Speaker 1: racist lies and attacks on who we are. If you've
Speaker 1: enjoyed this podcast, please help us grow by subscribing. Got
Speaker 1: a story about an interesting thing in tech, or just
Speaker 1: want to say hi, We'd love to hear from you
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Speaker 1: It's a production of iHeart Radio and Unbust Creative Jonathan
Speaker 1: Strickland is our executive producer. Tory Harrison is our supervising
Speaker 1: producer and engineer. Michael Lamotto is our contributing producer. I'm
Speaker 1: your host Bridget Tod. For more great podcasts, check out
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