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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTrump responds to racism accusations with FAKE photo of black supporters
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/06/04/3784856/trump-responds-accusations-racism-fake-photo-black-supporters/This morning on Twitter, Trump was back at it, highlighting the support of an African-American family.
Just one problem. The photo is fake.
It was not taken at a Trump event. Rather, it was taken at the The 27th annual Midwest Black Family Reunion held in Ohio in August 2015. The event featured music, art, chess, childrens games and other activities.
Last year, Trump attracted controversy when he retweeted fake statistics claiming 81% of white murder victims were murdered by blacks. The actual figure is 14%.
UPDATE JUN 4, 2016 2:21 PM
Speaking to BuzzFeed News, the parents in the photo -- Eddie and Vanessa Perry -- said they are not Trump supporters. They aren't endorsing or publicly supporting anyone. Eddie Perry called Trump's use of the photo "misleading" and "political propaganda."
Person 2713
(3,263 posts)Hekate
(90,202 posts)tclambert
(11,080 posts)Fake evidence to support a lie. And so easily discredited.
pnwmom
(108,925 posts)among his many many many friends?
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)Thanks for the chuckle, Pnwmom.
Doctor Jack
(3,072 posts)tanyev
(42,360 posts)The most interesting thing I noticed in the Buzzfeed article is that Don_Vito_08 shared the photo of the AA family only three minutes before Trump retweeted it. They also mentioned that Don_Vito_08 was the source of the ugly Melania/Heidi Cruz tweet.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/davidmack/trump-fake-photo?utm_term=.laj4YazDp#.ohLw7bjOy
Now I don't know enough about how the Twitter works, but is it possible that Don_Vito_08 is just another alias for Trump himself or at least someone very involved in the Trump campaign? A quick scan of that Twitter feed shows someone obsessed with the campaign who expresses themselves in a similar manner to Trump.
https://twitter.com/Don_Vito_08
pnwmom
(108,925 posts)tanyev
(42,360 posts)It was the first thing that hit me when I read the Buzzfeed article this morning and I did some quick googling before I went to work, but I didn't find anything then. I do think the way the article was written on Buzzfeed suggests it, but maybe they didn't want to come right out and say it and get slapped with a nuisance lawsuit from Herr Trumpenfuhrer.
Whether or not he's personally running that account, I'd be very willing to bet that the only reason it exists is to provide ammo that he can retweet and provide the "I was just retweeting something someone else tweeted" cover if someone calls him on it.
tanyev
(42,360 posts)I gave permission to @Don_Vito_08 to use my images, but now he is putting his own logo on them and has blocked me! SHAME!
ATTENTION! @Don_Vito_08 is using my works and tries to take credit for them by putting his own logo on! Tell him to be ORIGINAL!
Common Sense Ads provides funny and thought provoking memes for social media outlets in support of the Trump Movement.
https://www.facebook.com/Common-Sense-Ads-1585004065161209/
The page has been liked by Donald J. Trump's Facebook page.
Page was launched on April 9th.
Don_Vito_08 joined Twitter August 20th.
tclambert
(11,080 posts)Maybe some wannabe mobster who thinks he should be the next Vito Corleone. Although apparently there were 7 others before him.
tanyev
(42,360 posts)It is not clear why these accounts exist. The bots make it appear that Trumps support on Twitter is bigger and louder than perhaps it is in real life. But Trump is so popular its not clear whether the pro-Trump bot army actually makes any difference. And there is no evidence to suggest the Trump campaign knows about the bots. Trump sometimes uses interns to write his tweets for him, so perhaps they are making mistakes. Whatever the explanation, it seems that Trump is the only presidential candidate whose Twitter account has difficulty telling the difference between a bot and a human.
One potential explanation is that Trumps habit of retweeting anyone and anything racists or Mussolini, for instance has encouraged people to create dozens of bots that do little but target Trump with messages in the hope of getting a retweet. That might be a tactic to generate more followers for a bot network, because the more real followers a botnet has, the harder it is to detect. Usually, people create bots in order to inflate their follower count on Twitter, giving others a false impression of their importance. Twitter bans and deletes bots when it finds them.
Shevstov says that @Don_Vito_08 is a classical bot his twitter feed is a cocktail of @realDonaldTrumps retweets, @realDonaldTrums news and tweets of @realDonaldTrumps bots. On April 6, for instance, the majority of @Don_Vito_08?s tweets consisted of the same pro-Trump message tweeted over and over again, along with retweets of other pro-Trump messages. The account appears to have no other interests than Trump.
http://www.businessinsider.co.id/donald-trump-quote-bots-twitter-2016-4/#.V1YOIvZf3cs
The case of @don_vito_08
https://storify.com/patrickruffini/how-the-trump-network-on-twitter-operates
Interesting analysis by Patrick Ruffini--the Don_Vito_08 account was created on Aug. 20, 2015 but no tweets were sent until Jan. 21, 2016
Sorry to keep spamming your thread, pnwmom, but I just started finding all this stuff and I wanted to keep it all together.
rocktivity
(44,555 posts)was buy one from a stock photography site!
rocktivity
groundloop
(11,488 posts)Yes, they're awful damned stupid not to have simply purchased the rights to a stock photo. And to think they wouldn't get caught, what idiots!!!
7962
(11,841 posts)MariaThinks
(2,495 posts)L. Coyote
(51,129 posts)47of74
(18,470 posts)smirkymonkey
(63,221 posts)He just gets more slimy every day. And he has the nerve to call Hillary crooked?