COVID deniers now have their own musical
PLUS: Trump’s AI-generated fans and the latest false claim about election fraud
Welcome to NewsGuard's Reality Check, a report on how misinformation online is undermining trust — and who’s behind it.
Today:
Man of the people: Trump backers use AI to fake Black support
A minor internet glitch sparks a baseless voting fraud claim
Misinformation musical: Sing along to “Plandemic”
And more…
Today’s newsletter was edited by Jack Brewster, Eric Effron, and McKenzie Sadeghi.
1. AI Used to Generate Images of Trump with Black Supporters
Artificial intelligence tools have been used to generate seemingly authentic images of former U.S. President Donald Trump with Black voters — demonstrating how powerful new technologies are already being weaponized in the 2024 presidential campaign.
What Happened: Widely shared images purporting to depict Trump posing with Black voters aren’t what they seem: The photos were created by artificial intelligence tools, apparently produced by Trump supporters.
“Anyone that says Trump is a racist is totally wrong,” X user “Joey Franko” wrote in an X post sharing one of the AI-generated images. “He stopped his motorcade to take pictures with these young gentlemen that flagged him down.”
Conservative commentator Mark Kaye, a pro-Trump supporter who said he created one of the photos, wrote on Facebook, “President Trump now has the support [of] BLM...and just about everybody else. It's truly a Christmas miracle.”
A Closer Look: An examination of the photos shows multiple indicators of creation by AI, including missing fingers and a waxy, cartoon-like appearance of the people. Hive, an AI detection tool used by NewsGuard, rated the images as 99.9 percent AI generated.
Bigger Picture: At a Feb. 29, 2024, news conference, FBI Director Christopher Wray said, “This election cycle the U.S. will face more adversaries, moving at a faster pace, and enabled by new technology.” Wray noted that generative AI has made it “easier for both more and less-sophisticated foreign adversaries to engage in malign influence.”
Tricks of our Trade: To determine whether a photo is AI-generated, you can use free detection tools such as Hive. While such tools are imperfect and should be cross-referenced with other sources, the results can help assess the authenticity of seemingly manipulated images.
The bogus photos of Trump posing with fictional Black supporters were first reported by the documentary series “BBC Panorama.”
2. How a Simple Internet Hiccup Sparked an Election Fraud Tale
By Sam Howard
What started as a minor electronic glitch at a polling station in South Carolina quickly morphed into a widespread false narrative claiming that the state’s Feb. 24, 2024, Republican primary election was marred by voter fraud.
What Happened: South Carolina election officials said that one of three tablets used for checking in voters at Satchel Ford Elementary School near Columbia, S.C., did not connect to a mobile WiFi hotspot during voting hours. As a result, a poll worker used a paper list to check in voters, who then were able to cast emergency ballots, Travis Alexander, director of voter registration and elections in Richland County, where the voting locale is located, told NewsGuard in an email.
“No voter was turned away or not allowed to vote due to the voting procedure used,” Alexander said.
In total, 122 voters at the polling place cast emergency paper ballots because they were not checked in electronically. The ballots were then scanned digitally, Alexander said. Otherwise, he said, poll workers simply used the two functioning tablets to check in other voters.
Conspiracy Watch: Social media commentators and websites found by NewsGuard to repeatedly advance false or egregiously misleading information quickly seized on the internet glitch to falsely claim that South Carolina voters were prevented from casting their ballots or were victims of election fraud.
In a segment on conservative TV news outlet Real America’s Voice, reporter Michelle Backus said that voters at Satchel Ford Elementary “weren't able to put their ballots through a machine and instead had to put them in what they called somewhat of a trash bin.”
Conspiracy theory website InfoWars.com (NewsGuard Trust Score: 7.5/100) then published a story stating: “South Carolina primary voters are reportedly unable to vote due to ballot tabulators being unable to connect to the internet.” The story was republished by conservative news sites USSANews.com (Trust Score: 0/100) and ConservativeAngle.com (Trust Score: 7.5/100).
One day later, conservative news site ThePeoplesVoice.tv (Trust Score: 0/100) published a story baselessly stating: “Thousands of Republican voters in South Carolina were unable to vote yesterday due to a mysterious internet outage, according to reports.”
To be clear: There is no evidence that any voters at that polling place were prevented from voting.
Do you work in Trust and Safety for a technology company, in brand safety for advertising or otherwise counter misinformation as part of your job? Find out about NewsGuard’s weekly Risk Briefings, a more detailed briefing for professionals. Click here.
3. San Francisco Commissioner Faces Torrent of Misinformation About Her Immigration Status
Chinese citizen Kelly Wong’s legitimate appointment to the San Francisco Elections Commission has been marred by posts falsely claiming that she is an illegal immigrant. In fact, she holds a valid U.S. visa and is in the country legally.
What Happened: In the days following Wong’s appointment to the San Francisco Elections Commission last month, pro-Trump accounts claimed that Wong is an undocumented immigrant and that she was appointed to pave the way for undocumented migrants to vote in U.S. elections.
“San Francisco city council now has appointed an illegal immigrant to the board to help vote to make illegal immigrants to vote in America!!!” stated a Feb. 18 Instagram post from user @trump.post.
A Feb. 18 X post from conservative user @ProudElephantUS said, “JUST IN: San Francisco has appointed the first illegal alien in Kelly Wong to serve on [the] elections commission. Wong is in America illegally and she is not legally allowed to vote.”
Actually: Both Wong and San Francisco Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin have said that Wong is in the country legally.
“I almost feel ridiculous having to address this, but the narrative ongoing about me being undocumented [is] completely false,” Wong told NewsGuard in a phone interview, adding “I am on a legitimate visa to be staying in the U.S.”
Peskin told fact-checking news outlet Lead Stories, “She is a legal immigrant.”
Wong is the first non-U.S. citizen to be appointed elections commissioner in San Francisco after the passage of a November 2020 ballot referendum removing the U.S. citizenship requirement for San Francisco residents to serve on city boards, commissions, and advisory groups.
4. ‘Plandemic: The Musical’ Recasts COVID Hoaxsters as Melodic Heroes
By John Gregory
The maker of the viral “Plandemic” documentary is capping off his misinformation series with a musical film premiering on March 9 in Las Vegas.
Ah, the memories: May 2020’s “Plandemic,” a 25-minute film, amassed millions of views on Facebook and other social media platforms before being removed. It featured an interview between filmmaker Mikki Willis and virologist Judy Mikovits, who made a slew of false COVID-19 claims:
The “Plandemic” documentary films advanced widely debunked claims about COVID-19, including that the drug hydroxychloroquine, used commonly to treat malaria, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis, is an effective treatment for the virus. (It’s not.)
On its Rumble page, “Plandemic: The Musical” promises “cameos from real-life superheroes,” otherwise known as COVID misinformation superspreaders. Among those that NewsGuard spotted in the trailer are Mikovits; self-proclaimed mRNA vaccine inventor Robert Malone; and Del Bigtree, founder of the anti-vaccine group Informed Action Consent Network (Trust Score: 12.5/100) and the communications director for fellow anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s presidential campaign.
Here’s the trailer:
Lyrical preview: “Welcome to the Great Awakening/Come on, breathe it in/It’s the moment we’ve been praying for.”
If you’re wondering: No, we don’t know why the whole musical appears to be set inside a grocery store.
Limited release: For now, you can only see “Plandemic: The Musical” as part of an event called RePlatform Vegas, described as a “3-day conference and business expo to connect Freedom-oriented entrepreneurs, investors, & consumers” in creating a “parallel economy.”
Click here to find out more about NewsGuard Trust Scores and our process for rating websites. You can download NewsGuard’s browser extension, which displays NewsGuard Trust Score icons next to links on search engines, social media feeds, and other platforms by clicking here.
5. One More Thing: AI Content Farm Tracker at 739 Sites and Counting
AI content farms are taking over the internet, and NewsGuard analysts track their spread. Read more about AI content farms, and how they are proliferating:
Produced by co-CEOs Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz, and the NewsGuard team.
We launched Reality Check after seeing how much interest there is in our work beyond the business and tech communities that we serve. Subscribe to this newsletter to support our apolitical mission to counter misinformation for readers, brands, and democracies. Have feedback? Send us an email: realitycheck@newsguardtech.com.