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After being accused of social media manipulation by a conservative media organization, the Discord server run by Vice President Kamala Harris's presidential campaign seems to be closed to new users. Users who tried to join the "Team Harris Walz Virtual Office" as of Wednesday were greeted with the following message: "Invites are currently paused for this server. Please try again later."
Campaign’s Online Community Under Scrutiny
The server acted as a gathering place for campaign supporters and was advertised on Harris's campaign website. Users may interact with other supporters, get event updates, and speak with campaign personnel via the site. When they first joined, members were asked to respond to questions regarding organizing pro-Harris events and working to combat misinformation, especially on X, the original name for Twitter.
Manipulation Allegations Sparked by Conservative Outlet
The person known as "Reddit Lies" on X wrote an essay for the conservative publication The Federalist on Wednesday. The report claimed strategies intended to artificially increase popularity and get around election laws, alleging that the Harris campaign utilized the server to control social media participation. The campaign allegedly encouraged volunteers to refute X-related myths that may damage the campaign’s reputation, according to the report.
A server member urged users to downvote a Community Note on X that accused the Harris campaign's account, @KamalaHQ, of taking a Trump quote out of context. This was one such case that was noted in the study. During a recent address in Doral, Florida, Trump made the remark that political opponents are the “enemy within.” As proof that the initial quotation was inaccurate, Trump supporters pointed to a different Miami comment in which Trump said “enemies within” in reference to government leakers. The Community Note in question had received enough downvotes to be taken out of the footage by the time the story was published.
Federalist Claims Pro-Harris Manipulation on X
The Federalist report also claimed that in an attempt to sway public opinion, Harris supporters banded together to upvote Community Notes on postings endorsing Trump. Reddit Lies claims that the campaign disabled his account and closed fresh member invites because it was aware of the scrutiny. The conservative user claimed to have archived server content before the ban, stating, “The Harris-Walz volunteer discord server just banned my account. We expected this. That’s why we quietly archived the server over the past week and are now releasing the files to the broader public.”
Growing Criticism Beyond Partisan Lines
According to a recent CNN article, the Harris campaign used similar strategies, altering social media postings and captions in ways that could have been deceptive. This most recent instance is consistent with accusations of manipulating digital strategies, even if the campaign has not yet officially addressed the lockout of the Discord server.