Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign team secretly edited headlines in Google search results to make major news organizations appear to be on her side, according to a report.
All of the altered headlines were paired with a “Funded by Candidate Harris for President” banner and were changed without the news organizations’ knowledge. Axios reported on Tuesday.
Nearly a dozen publishers were caught up in this fake headline campaign, including major names like The Guardian, Reuters, CBS News, Associated Press and PBS.
Smaller publications like WDay Radio in North Dakota also changed their headlines.
The ads included links to actual articles from news organizations, but the headlines and descriptions were edited to support the 59-year-old presidential candidate.
For example, one advert placed next to a Guardian article featured the headline “VP Harris opposes abortion ban, Harris defends reproductive freedom” with a supporting line below the headline: “Vice President Harris is a champion of reproductive freedom and will block President Trump’s abortion ban.”
Axios reports that the link to the NPR article reads, “Harris will lower the cost of health care,” with supporting text, “Kamala Harris will lower the cost of quality, affordable health care.”
Affected news outlets, including CNN, USA Today and NPR, said all three outlets had published content praising Harris in recent weeks but were unaware of her campaign’s involvement in the election.
“We understand that some organisations want to associate themselves with the Guardian’s trusted brand, but we need to ensure it is used appropriately and with permission. We will be contacting Google to obtain further information about this practice,” a Guardian spokesman said.
Although the tactic is misleading, it does not violate Google’s policies because the fake ads are prominently labeled “sponsored” and “easily distinguishable from search results.”
This shocking report comes as Harris is hiding from the very reports she is desperately trying to skew in her favor.
The former California attorney general has refused to give any major interviews or news appearances since being named a presidential candidate more than three weeks ago.
The Harris campaign did not respond to The Washington Post’s request for comment.
