Four years ago, when Kamala Harris became US President Joe Biden’s running mate, she also became “the most derided woman” in US politics, according to a misinformation study.
The analysis identified Ms Harris, a black and south Asian woman, as a lightning rod for misogyny and racism. On Monday after Mr Biden endorsed her to lead the Democrats, it only took minutes for deeply offensive false narratives about her to resurface.
ABC NEWS Verify has been tracking how old tropes, falsehoods, and misinformation are already being weaponised against the current frontrunner for the Democratic nomination.
Our analysis also provides a preview of how grim the political discourse may yet become.
Kamala Harris, the ‘diversity hire’
Few three-letter acronyms ignite controversy like DEI, which stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion.
The term is a basic corporate framework about embracing all aspects of social identity (including race, sex, age, sexual orientation, physical disabilities, and socio-economic class) and promoting fair treatment and equal opportunities.
A Pew Research Center survey from last year showed a majority of US workers believed DEI was a “good thing”, with only 16 per cent labelling it as a “bad thing”.
But the term has become a racist dog whistle and the bogeyman of the far-right.
The term DEI in relation to Ms Harris on X (formerly Twitter) received renewed interest in the hours after Mr Biden’s endorsement. Many among the flurry of posts suggested that Ms Harris was only chosen for her ethnicity and gender.
Former Trump aide Sebastian Gorka — who has previously called the vice-president “coloured” and a “DEI hire” — was cut off during an interview on conservative British news channel GB News after questioning her history with “unkind language”.
“This woman, this disaster whose only qualification is having a vagina and the right skin colour…” Dr Gorka began before being interrupted by the host Mark Dolan, who reminded him that Ms Harris was an “accomplished lawyer” and an experienced politician.
Washington-based disinformation expert Nina Jankowicz said the dismissal of Ms Harris as the “DEI candidate” was also a feature of the last presidential election campaign.
“It’s a pretty well-worn way that we talk about women in positions of power; [that] they couldn’t have gotten there on their own.
“They’re [Republicans] going to claim they’re [Democrats] running this woman because they have to be bound by diversity, equity and inclusion.”
Ms Jankowicz, CEO of the disinformation-countering American Sunlight Project, was the lead author of the 2021 study that identified Ms Harris as the focus of online abuse of female politicians.
The analysis of online conversations about 13 female politicians in a two-month period just before the 2020 election, found that three-quarters of abusive content shared targeted the then-California senator.
“When I saw the endorsement [of Ms Harris] from President Biden I was expecting this kind of disinformation.”
Ms Jankowicz was briefly the executive director of the Department of Homeland Security’s Disinformation Governance Board before it was disbanded.
Part of what has fuelled these DEI narratives was a comment made by Mr Biden in 2020 during a debate, where he pledged to pick a woman to be his vice-president.
“There are a number of women who are qualified to be president tomorrow. I would pick a woman to be my vice-president,” he said at the time.
Beyond the racist implications that a woman of colour is presumed to be less qualified for a position, the term DEI has become a scapegoat for almost every kind of grievance.
It’s been blamed for everything — cost-of-living, poor box-office performances, aviation safety, the bridge collapse in Baltimore and last week’s CrowdStrike global outage.
The omnipresent George Soros conspiracy theory
It didn’t take long for another narrative to enter the fray, this one xenophobic in nature and boosted by the billionaire owner of social media platform X, Elon Musk.
“I’d just like to thank @AlexanderSoros for not keeping everyone in suspense about who the next puppet would be,” Mr Musk posted in response to the news that Open Society Foundation chair Alexander Soros had endorsed Ms Harris.
Mr Soros is the son of billionaire philanthropist and former currency speculator George Soros, a Jewish-Hungarian man who escaped the Holocaust and eventually immigrated to the United States.
The elder Mr Soros, who handed control of his foundation to his son last year, has long been the subject of conspiracy theories alleging control of various organisations and political movements for decades.
But these allegations are rooted in centuries-old anti-Semitic tropes which claim Jewish people secretly control the world.
ABC NEWS Verify has already seen this baseless theory boosted by a prominent right-leaning X account with millions of followers which we have chosen not to name.
As it spills over into the broader internet and possibly shows up in your feed, it pays to remember it is little more than recycled racism.
While Mr Soros is a prolific donor to progressive causes, there is little evidence to suggest he is able to influence global affairs any more than other billionaires, including Mr Musk, who has endorsed Republican former president Donald Trump.
It also underscores a crucial difference between this year’s presidential election campaign and the one four years ago. Mr Musk bought X in 2022 and rapidly dismantled its capacity to detect and moderate harmful content, potentially exposing a candidate like Ms Harris to worse levels of online abuse.
On top of this, Mr Musk is using his own account, with its swollen ranks of followers, to spread xenophobic conspiracy theories.
‘Birtherism’ returns
Falsehoods about Ms Harris’s eligibility to run for president have also resurfaced, with many claiming she cannot hold office because she is not a “natural born citizen”.
The claims rely on a persistent but debunked misreading of the US constitution that suggests that because Ms Harris’s parents were born overseas she did not meet this criteria. However, she was born in California and based on US law, is a “natural born citizen”.
This fringe conspiracy is known as “birtherism” and was popularised by Trump during former president Barack Obama’s presidency. The false claim was so prevalent during the Obama years that his office was forced to produce a birth certificate. Many — including Trump — then suggested it was a forgery.
The same racist claims that stalked Mr Obama have also latched onto Ms Harris.
In August 2020, when she was announced as Mr Biden’s running mate, then-president Trump questioned her eligibility.
“I just heard it today that she [Kamala Harris] doesn’t meet the requirements … I have no idea if that’s right,” he said during a press conference.
On Monday, three hours after Mr Biden announced he would not be contesting the election, a post on X that repeated the false claims about Ms Harris’s eligibility had been viewed more than 4.6 million times.
As the daughter of migrants, Ms Harris’s mixed heritage has also been a focus of some conspiracy theorists and critics of her ties to black culture.
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Born to a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, Ms Harris was the first female vice-president and the first of African American and Asian heritage, and has described childhood experiences of structural racism including involvement in black rights activism while at college.
“I’m black, and I’m proud of being black,” she said during an interview for her 2020 run.
However, in the hours following Mr Biden stepping down, several social media posts criticised her statements about her heritage.
Popular social media posts claimed she was “only 25 per cent black” and therefore could not represent black culture.
The vice-president’s mixed heritage would be used to attack her, Ms Jankowicz said.
“She’s … black and south Asian, so there’s a lot going against her.”
The disinformation researcher said it was important to “pre-bunk” the expected racist and false narratives early.
“This is an election where it’s more important than ever to think about the merits of candidates and their actual track records rather than these childish debased attacks that we’ve seen so often in politics.”