Donald Trump has openly tried to win over African-American voters to the Republican Party. An electorate said to have been key to Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.
Now BBC in an audit discovered dozens of AI-generated images in social media depicting the presidential candidate alongside black voters. Images spread by Trump supporters to portray Trump as popular with that electorate.
Cliff Albright, who co-founded the organization Black Votes Matter, points to a political tactic of spreading disinformation, which he believes also occurred in the last presidential election.
– There have been documented attempts to target disinformation at black groups again, especially at the younger black voters, Albright told the BBC.
There is no evidence that the fake photos are connected to Trump’s presidential campaign.
1.3 million views
An AI-generated image that has received over 1.3 million views on Platform X depicts Trump posing with young black male voters on a front porch.
The image was created from the beginning of a satirical account but has gone viral with new fake captions. A false claim claims that Trump stopped his motorcade to settle down with the young men.
The BBC has not come across similar images of Joe Biden. The AI images that are being circulated of the current president instead show him with other world leaders, such as Russian President Vladimir Putin.