The Center for Information Resilience (CIR) announced on Wednesday that it had discovered 16 accounts using images of influencers from Europe without their permission, in order to pose as young women who support the former Republican president.
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Supposed users of the social network X are posing as fervent supporters of Donald Trump, but are in reality using photos of European fashion or beauty influencers, according to a report by an association published Wednesday.
The report, produced by the Center for Information Resilience (CIR), comes at a time when many researchers are raising concerns about the proliferation of fake accounts and political disinformation on Elon Musk’s platform ahead of the November presidential election in the United States.
Since the billionaire became the owner of Twitter, now X, in 2022, the group has eliminated a large number of positions in the teams that were fighting the spread of misinformation on the platform. The richest man in the world recently gave his support to Donald Trump.
The CIR, which says its mission is to: “countering disinformation”has discovered 16 accounts using images of European influencers without their permission, in order to pose as young women who support the former Republican president and encourage their thousands of subscribers to do the same. According to the association, this ploy is part of a coordinated campaign to promote pro-Trump content.
The identity of the person or people behind this digital smokescreen is not known, nor whether the motive is primarily ideological or monetary. At the beach, walking the dog, …: images taken from the Instagram accounts of these influencers are then diverted on X to include captions with pro-Trump slogans, according to the CIR.
One of the accounts behind the hoax: “Luna,” a self-proclaimed supporter of Donald Trump, who uses photos of a German fashion influencer, according to CNN, which conducted the investigation in conjunction with the CIR. The influencer, Debbie Nederlof, expressed her anger and frustration at this misuse of her image, saying in an interview with CNN “have nothing to do with the United States, or with Trump”. Contacted by AFP, X did not respond to requests for comment on the subject.