Have you seen the Kamala Harris ad on Facebook? Be careful. He might be cheating on you.
A series of ads that look like the Harris campaign spread falsehoods about his current policy positions, including that he wants to implement a mandatory gun-buyback program and offer Medicare benefits and driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants. One ad insists Harris wants to ban fracking. None of that is true.
The Facebook ads have collectively been viewed millions of times in swing states, posted by an account called “Progress 2028,” a name that refers to liberal partners to Heritage 2025 Foundation Project.
But no initiative aligns with Harris like Progress 2028. And the ad is funded by Building America’s Future, a dark money group funded by billionaire Elon Musk and others, according to to the Open Secrets campaign tracking site. It’s part of more than $100 million Musk has been waiting to re-elect former president Donald Trump, campaign finance records show.
Buying ads is available to the public in the ad library database held by Meta, Facebook’s parent company. It shows that so far the group has posted 13 such ads. As of Wednesday afternoon, Meta counted the ad as having received 8.7 million impressions, although some viewers may have seen the same ad multiple times.
Experts told NPR that there was nothing illegal about the ad, as the First Amendment protects political speech, even if it contains falsehoods. But the message has the potential to lead voters astray days before the election.
“This tactic is not new,” said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Center for Public Policy, of the strategy of using trickery to undermine political opponents. “The potential reach and impact is. Social media develops the capacity of well-financed and skilled ad buyers for micro-targeting that cannot identify vulnerable voters without risking a reaction from those who can recognize the fraud.
Robert Weissman, co-president of the nonprofit watchdog group Public Citizen, said that in this case, the disclosure at the bottom of the ad stating the ad was “paid for by Progress 2028” constituted fraud.
“It basically says who paid for the ad, but the entity sounds like an organization that supports Harris, if not,” said Weissman, who asked Meta to remove the ad.
Meta spokesman Ryan Daniels would not comment directly on the Progress 2028 ad, ie first highlighted by technology news site 404 Media. But the ad does not appear to run afoul of Meta ad ruleswhich usually requires that the entity paying for the ad be disclosed. The rules also prohibit premature claims of victory and advertisements that question the legitimacy of the electoral process.
Daniels said that deceptive political ads have been spread “across the media landscape for decades,” adding that the Meta Ad Library, where the reach of ads can be viewed, “brings a level of transparency to political ads that surpasses any other platform anywhere. already running.”
As we did in 2020, Meta will not allow it new political ads to be placed in the week leading up to November 5. Elections, but political ads can still appear on the company’s platform if purchased before the election week.
After November 5, political ads on Facebook and Instagram can continue, which is a change from 2020, when these ads were banned after the election. Google, meanwhile, will block election ads after November 5 to tamp down any falsehoods that can spread in the event votes are still counted then.
Weissman says this is not enough. “Meta downplays its responsibility for allowing this fraud, but Meta is 100 percent responsible,” Weissman said. “Yes, there is a First Amendment right to lie, but that does not limit the management of Meta’s ads on the platform.”
Open Secrets found that Progress 2028 also sent text messages to potential voters making false claims about Harris’ policy positions with links to Progress 2028’s webpage, which gave the impression that the group was supporting Harris for president, when it was the opposite.
At site stated that “when Kamala Harris takes office, we will have an unprecedented opportunity to implement reforms that will ensure that equity in every corner of America is finally a reality,” before launching several policy proposals that Harris did not implement. in fact endorse it in the 2024 race.
Building America’s Future and the consulting group associated with Progress 2028 did not return requests for comment.
Weissman with Public Citizen said mischaracterizing candidates’ stances is a common political messaging tactic, but outright lies are framed as if they’re coming from candidates beyond brazen distortion.
“Whether it has any effect is another question, but it is very likely to be deceptive,” he said. “They seem to be real and the only way to admit that they don’t know is that you are a voter who knows that the claims are not true.”