A joint investigation by CNN and the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) has found that photos of European influencers were stolen and used to promote Republican candidate Donald Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance, in the upcoming presidential election.
CNN and CIR used reverse image search tools to analyze over 54 suspicious accounts. Each account used photos of influencers from European countries such as Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Russia to pose as conventionally attractive young women who were also Trump supporters.
All accounts grew their follower count at a suspicious rate and spread pro-Trump messages using the hashtags #MAGAPatriots and #MAGA2024. The posts also often contained errors in the English language.
“By hijacking influencers’ images, these accounts clearly recognize the importance of creating a believable human persona that followers can identify with – they share photos of the women on the beach, in a cafe or putting on makeup,” Benjamin Strick, chief of investigations at CIR, told CNN.
A now-deleted X-account, @Luna_2k24, had a large following since it was created in March. The account posed as a 32-year-old Trump supporter, praised the former president and posted photos of “herself” to accompany the posts.
But the photos Luna posted were actually photos of German fashion influencer Debbie Nederlof, a single mother and trained optician from Trier.
“To be honest, my reaction was: ‘What the hell?’. That was my reaction, because I have nothing to do with the United States, with Trump, with the political things there. What the hell do I, who come from a small town in Germany, care about US politics?” Nederlof told CNN.
Another account, @queen0_gabriela, used photos of 27-year-old Demi Maric, a business student from Amsterdam. Another, @eva_maga1996, used photos of 22-year-old influencer Neriah Tellerup Andersen from Copenhagen, Denmark.
“I feel like I’m being taken advantage of, like someone is taking something away from me. It’s my image. I don’t want people to think I’m doing what these profiles sometimes propagate,” Andersen told CNN.
The fake accounts appear to be part of a sophisticated, coordinated operation, Emily Horne, Twitter’s former global head of political communications, told CNN, warning that the accounts could be a sign of foreign interference in the upcoming 2024 presidential election, which is less than 70 days away.
“It could be a state actor. The level of sophistication suggests it could be any of the hostile state actors, including Russia, Iran and China,” she told CNN.
