Bridget Todd (00:03):

You're listening to Disinformed, a mini series from There Are No Girls On The Internet. I'm Bridget Todd.

Bridget Todd (00:13):

It brings me no pleasure to report that right-wing media keeps on giving us great examples of how complete lies are created, spread, and mainstreamed online. And this time, it's about Vice President Kamala Harris. The New York Post alleged that unaccompanied minors who crossed the border were given copies of Harris's book as part of welcome kits. The story included a picture of Harris's children's book, called Superheroes Are Everywhere, alongside a backpack and hygiene items on a cot at the Long Bach emergency intake site for unaccompanied minors. The story went viral, and importantly, it wasn't just promoted by fringe right-wing conspiracy theorists. It was shared by mainstream Republican figures and elected officials, like the official GOP Twitter account, Arkansas Senator Tom Cotton, and White House Republican whip, Steve Scalise, who tweeted, "Is Kamala Harris profiting off the border crisis? Americans need to know."

Bridget Todd (01:05):

The story was picked up and repeated by other big conservative news outlets like Fox News and The Blaze. Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy even asked White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki about it in a press conference.

Peter Doocy (01:17):

Every migrant child being brought to a shelter is being given a copy of her children's book, Superheroes Are Everywhere. Do you know why that is, and if she's making any money off of that?

Jen Psaki (01:28):

You're talking about if they go to shelters or if they go to-

Peter Doocy (01:31):

Yeah, in the welcome kit, apparently. There's a copy of her 2019 children's book, Superheroes Are Everywhere.

Jen Psaki (01:36):

I'd have to certainly check on that.

Bridget Todd (01:38):

Only none of it was true. The Washington Post confirmed that one copy of Harris's book that was donated, not included in, quote, welcome kits, that was in that now viral photo. And that one photo was the basis for the entire fabrication that Harris's books were being included in welcome kits and the insinuation from Republican elected officials that Harris was personally making a profit from the situation at our border.

Bridget Todd (02:05):

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement to Newsweek that the referenced book was one of an assortment of hundreds of titles donated to the Long Beach emergency intake site as part of a City of Long Beach new books and toys drive. No taxpayer dollars were used to purchase Vice President Harris's book. Kevin Lee, chief public affairs officer for the city, also clarified that the city had no involvement in the book's curation. It was just donated as part of their book and toy drive. The City of Long Beach, in partnership with the Long Beach Convention and Visitors Bureau, had a citywide book and toy drive that is ongoing to support the migrant children, he said. The single book you referenced is one of hundreds of various books that have already been donated. The book was not purchased by HHS or the city.

Bridget Todd (02:48):

Now, after the story was debunked, the reporter who wrote it, Laura Italiano, resigned, admitting that she'd been pressured into writing it, saying, "The Kamala Harris story, an incorrect story I was ordered to write and which I failed to push back hard enough against, was my breaking point." Now, The New York Post has not even officially retracted the story. Instead, they temporarily removed it from their site and then republished it with an editors note at the bottom saying, "The original version of this article said migrant kids were getting Harris's book in a welcome kit, but that has been updated to note that only one known copy of the book was given to a child."

Bridget Todd (03:24):

This is completely insufficient when you consider the lie is already out there. And all of those prominent Republican figures I told you about earlier, their tweets are still up on Twitter as of me recording this episode. And here's why it's not really about this one lie. The data is clear that women of color, especially Black women in politics, face a disproportionate amount of disinformation, especially lies and attacks that rely on negative stereotypes about our gender and race. They paint us Black women as untrustworthy liars and rely on unfair attacks on our identities to fuel those lies.

Bridget Todd (03:57):

Even before Harris was named as Biden's running mate, she was subjected to a flood of racist, sexist disinformation on social media, like posts that made racist claims that she wasn't even eligible to serve in the White House or that she was lying about her Black and Indian heritage. Intelligence software service Zignal Labs found over 1 million mentions of Harris on Twitter since June 2020 that had hashtags or terms associated with misinformation about her.

Bridget Todd (04:22):

Now compare that to her white male counterparts. Misinformation accounted for less than 1% of Twitter talk when Mike Pence and Tim Kane were running for vice president, while misleading information about Harris is much more prevalent, making up more than 4% of the conversation about her on Twitter. And it's not just Harris. Gender disinformation campaigns are widespread for women in politics. In her report for the Wilson Center called Malign Creativity: How Gender, Sex, and Lies Are Weaponized Against Women Online, researcher Alexandra Pavliuc found that gendered abuse affected 12 of 13 research subjects, while nine out of 13 subjects were targeted with gender disinformation narratives. These narratives were racist, transphobic, and sexualized in nature. The overwhelming majority of the recorded keywords relating to the abuse and disinformation were identified on Twitter and directed toward Kamala Harris, who accounted for 78% of the total recorded instances. Her report also found that online abusers used evasive, tricky language like dog whistles, where they don't come right out and say their racist or sexist thing in order to avoid detection by social media moderation tools.

Bridget Todd (05:29):

I'm talking about things like social media posts that refer to Kamala Harris as quote, heels-up Harris, a sexist insinuation that she, quote, slept her way to the top, which is a common sexist line of attack that Harris faces online. And here's why this is such a big problem for all of us, not just women. When attacks on women and women of color are allowed to fester and spread, it has a chilling effect on women's participation in politics and political discourse. It keeps us from running for office or even just speaking about our political opinions online because who would want to volunteer to be attacked or become a target of a disinformation campaign just because of who you are?

Bridget Todd (06:04):

It keeps our entire country from being able to have a democracy where everyone, women, women of color are able to fully participate. And this isn't just a threat to women. It's a threat to all of us. Everyone is better served when all of us can be fully involved in our democracy. If we're ever going to create an equal playing field for the next generation of women in politics, we have got to create a digital media landscape where racist, sexist attacks are not widespread and are just not tolerated. Women, women of color, and Black women deserve to be judged by our records, actions, and words, not sexist, racist lies and attacks on who we are.

Bridget Todd (06:44):

If you've enjoyed this podcast, please help us grow by subscribing. Got a story about an interesting thing in tech, or just want to say hi? We'd love to hear from you at hello@TANGOTI.com. Disinformed is brought to you by There Are No Girls On The Internet. It's a production of iHeartRadio and Unbossed Creative. Jonathan Strickland is our executive producer. Tari Harrison is our supervising producer and engineer. Michael Amato is our contributing producer. I'm your host, Bridget Todd. For more great podcasts, check out the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.