Update (7/22/24): TikTok has removed the fake Harris audio and stated that it is “actively and aggressively removing this content which violates our rules.”
Incoherent audio wrongly attributed to Vice President Kamala Harris is going viral among right-wing accounts on TikTok following President Joe Biden’s exit from the presidential race.
“Today is today and yesterday was today yesterday,” says a slurring, digitally altered Harris. “Tomorrow will be today tomorrow, so live today so the future today will be as the past today as it is tomorrow.”
This audio originates from a manipulated video of Harris’ 2023 speech at Howard University. Over 2,300 individual TikTok posts have used this sound, meaning it plays in the background of each video.
After Biden’s announcement, many users wrongly attributed the audio to Harris and used it to attack her.
“After hearing this speech from Kamala Harris, I’m definitely voting,” says the overlaid text of one user’s video. The video’s caption also reads, “Don’t vote for her just because shes a woman” with the hashtags “#trump2024” and “#trumptrain.” The video has already racked up over 350,000 views.
TikTok’s inability to identify and stop the spread of viral and malicious misinformation about a presidential candidate sets a bad precedent for the future of its election integrity efforts.
