Photos of European influencers were stolen and used to promote Republican candidate Donald Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance, in the upcoming presidential election, a joint investigation by CNN and the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) has revealed.
CNN and CIR used reverse-image search tools to analyze over 54 suspect accounts. Each account used photos of influencers from European countries including Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Russia to pose as conventionally attractive young women who were also Trump supporters.
The accounts all grew suspiciously fast in followers and pushed pro-Trump messaging, using the hashtags #MAGAPatriots and #MAGA2024. The posts also frequently contained English-language errors.
“By hijacking images of the influencers, these accounts clearly recognise the value of creating a believable human persona that followers can relate to – they share photographs of the women at the beach, out at a café, or doing their make-up,” Benjamin Strick, director of investigations at CIR, told CNN.
One X account that has since been deleted, @Luna_2k24, amassed a large following since it was created in March. Posing as a 32-year-old Trump supporter, the account praised the former president and she posted photos of “herself” to accompany the posts.
But the photos Luna was posting were actually photos of German fashion influencer Debbie Nederlof, a single mother and trained optician in Trier, Germany.
“To be honest, ‘what the f**k?’ was my reaction. That was my reaction, because I have nothing to do with the United States, with Trump, the political things over there. What the hell do I, from a small place in Germany, care about U.S. politics?” Nederlof told CNN.
Another account, @queen0_gabriela, used photos of 27-year-old Demi Maric, an Amsterdam-based business student. Another, @eva_maga1996, used photos of 22-year-old influencer Neriah Tellerup Andersen from Copenhagen, Denmark.
“I feel used, like someone is taking something from me. It’s my image. I don’t want to think people think that I do what those profiles are sometimes promoting,” Andersen told CNN.
The fake accounts seem to be part of a sophisticated, coordinated effort, Emily Horne, former global head of policy communications at Twitter, told CNN. She warned that the accounts could be a sign of foreign intervention in the upcoming 2024 presidential election, which is less than 70 days away.
“This could be a state actor. The level of sophistication indicates it could be any of the hostile state actors, including Russia, Iran and China,” she told CNN.