Bobby Allyn , NPR; An Elon Musk-backed political group is posting fake Kamala Harris ads on Facebook
"A series of ads that look like they are from the Harris campaign are spreading falsehoods about her current policy positions, including that she wants to institute a mandatory gun-buyback program and give Medicare benefits and drivers’ licenses to undocumented immigrants. One of the ads asserts Harris wants to ban fracking. None of this is true.
The Facebook ads have collectively been viewed millions of times in swing states, posted by an account dubbed “Progress 2028,” a name suggesting a liberal counterpart to the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025.
But there is no such Harris-aligned initiative as Progress 2028. And the ads are bankrolled by Building America’s Future, a dark money group funded by billionaire Elon Musk and others, according to campaign tracking site Open Secrets. It’s part of the more than $100 million Musk has spent to help re-elect former president Donald Trump, campaign finance records show.
The ad buys are publicly available in an ad library database hosted by Meta, Facebook’s parent company. It shows that so far the group has posted 13 of these ads. As of Wednesday afternoon, Meta tallied the ads as having received 8.7 million impressions, although some viewers may have seen the same ads multiple times.
Experts told NPR that there is nothing illegal about the ads, since the First Amendment protects political speech, even when it contains lies. But the messages have the potential to lead voters astray just days before the election."
