AI-Generated Photos of Kamala Harris in Shorts Circulate Online
Kamala Harris is the current Vice President of the United States. Earlier this month, she was officially nominated as the Democratic Presidential Candidate for the upcoming election. Recently, there were widespread claims on social media that photos of her wearing shorts depicted her as a prostitute. These images attracted a lot of attention and reactions […]
Kamala Harris is the current Vice President of the United States. Earlier this month, she was officially nominated as the Democratic Presidential Candidate for the upcoming election. Recently, there were widespread claims on social media that photos of her wearing shorts depicted her as a prostitute. These images attracted a lot of attention and reactions from social media users. However, our investigation revealed that the photos had been digitally edited.
SOCIAL MEDIA CLAIM
A claim circulating on social media recently alleged that U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris engaged in sexual activities during the 1980s and 1990s.
The claim post circulated a composite of two images depicting the Democratic Presidential Candidate wearing revealing clothing.
Below is the snapshot of the claim circulation on Facebook on August 9, 2024, asking, "Is this person really being considered for our next President?"
The post garnered significant attention from social media users who believed the images were authentic and criticized the Democratic Presidential Candidate.
Below is the screenshot of another X tweet from August 8, 2024, stating, "Honestly, this is how it all began."
"The claim has also been circulated on Meta's newly created social media platform, Threads."
Below is a snapshot of the claim post on Threads on August 10, 2024, which says, "Could this be how she got to where she's at?"
https://www.threads.net/@ronnyclaybern/post/C-cf0KRuzyV
A claim circulating on Facebook stated that the images were a composite of photos of Kamala Harris, insinuating that she worked as a prostitute many years ago.
Below is a screenshot of the claim posted on Facebook by a Cambodian social media user on August 9, 2024, alleging that "these were Kamala Harris when she was a sex worker."
Below is a snapshot of another claim in Khmer that has been circulated on Facebook by another Cambodian social media user.
FACT CHECK
Fact Crescendo began debunking the aforementioned claim by conducting a reverse image search and using AI-generated image detectors, which led to the discovery of the following facts.
By conducting a Google Reverse Image Search, we found numerous AI-generated images of U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris circulating on social media and search engines.
A fact discovered by the Italian fact-checking media FACTA NEWS indicates that one of the images in the composite image was generated by an artificial intelligence application. Full story here
In the process of debunking the claim, Fact Crescendo attempted to analyze the alleged images using various AI-generated image detectors.
A scan on SightEngine, an AI-generated image-checking website, indicates that the composite image was most likely created by AI applications.
A further fact-checking article confirmed that the images were not real; instead, they were digitally generated. Full story here
Several deepfake claims related to the U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris have been circulated on social media platforms since she was officially nominated as the Democrat Presidential Candidate. Full stories here and here.
CONCLUSION
Fact Crescendo found out the claim mentioned above was digitally edited. Both images were not real photos of the U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris who is now the Democrat Presidential Candidate. They were generated by artificial intelligence applications.
Title:AI-Generated Photos of Kamala Harris in Shorts Circulate Online
Written By: Fact Crescendo TeamResult: Altered
