Uncovering the Truth: The Rise of Imposter Content in the Era of Misinformation

Did you see this clapback from Tim Walz? After conservative pundit Ann Coulter posted this about his 17 year old son, it looked like the VP candidate responded by saying, “talk about why your fiance’s keep leaving you.” With a screenshot of her Wikipedia page. The burn went viral and thousands of people praised Walz for defending his son. But it’s not real. Walz never posted this on any of his social accounts. We call this imposter content — when someone uses a well known name, brand or logo to fool people into believing content is legit. As we get closer to the election, We’ll likely see this tactic used more. Just recently someone created a fake Donald Trump post making it look like he was criticizing Elon Musk after their interview on X, including a bunch of misspellings. A couple tips. If it’s a screenshot and not a live working link, that could be a sign. Go directly to that person’s account and see if you can find the post for yourself. Or do a keyword search and see if you can find reporting from credible sources on it. Stay mindful.