Tim Kaine, who was the Democratic vice presidential nominee four years ago. From July to October, Harris and Republican Vice President Mike Pence have been mentioned almost 48 million times combined on Twitter, compared to only 12 million total mentions of Pence or Virginia Sen. There’s been a huge uptick in social media conversation around the vice presidential candidates this year, compared to the 2016 campaign. Social media chatter around Harris’ eligibility declined after being “eclipsed” by fact checks from news organizations that debunked it, Granston added. 20, 1964, in Oakland, California, making her eligible to serve as either vice president or president. Harris’ birth certificate shows she was born on Oct. The untrue assertion got a huge boost again, however, in August when President Donald Trump elevated it from his presidential podium. The AP identified that false claim circulating online in January 2019, when Harris announced she was running for president. Nearly 300,000 of those mentions were about Harris’ eligibility to serve as president, according to Zignal’s findings. The mentions include fact checks that rebuffed the falsehoods, but those made up only a small portion of that conversation.
The firm identified more than 1 million mentions since June on Twitter of Harris with hashtags or terms associated with misinformation about her.
“The narratives related to Kamala Harris zeroed in much more on her personal identity, especially as a woman of color,” said Jennifer Granston, head of insights at Zignal Labs.