Did he pay millions for fake advertising on Facebook?

There are millions of ads circulating on Facebook that claim to come from Kamala Harris. Trump supporter Elon Musk apparently paid for the voter deception.

No, Kamala Harris doesn’t want to take away Americans’ guns. Free medical care for illegal immigrants is also not part of the Democratic presidential candidate’s election platform. But there are currently millions of alleged election ads from Harris circulating on Facebook that claim exactly that. And the whole thing is apparently financed by billionaire Elon Musk, one of the most important supporters of her rival Donald Trump.

The fake ads are posted by an account with the title “Progress 2028”. The title is apparently intended to create a contrast to the infamous “Project 2025,” in which the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation and many former Trump employees outline a program for a possible second term in office for the Republican.

The document, from which the Trump camp is trying to distance itself, envisages, for example, filling crucial positions in the US government apparatus with loyal Trump supporters. At first glance, the name “Progress 2028” seems to be a counterprogram to “Project 2025”. But this deception is apparently part of the method behind the false Harris ads on Facebook. These images distributed on X show a selection of the false advertisements:

In fact, there is no initiative associated with Kamala Harris called Progress 2028. The website behind it was set up by the Republican campaign group “Building America’s Future”, as the lobby control group “Open Secrets” reports. “Building America’s Future” therefore has close relationships with various Republican campaign associations, the so-called PACs (Political Action Committees).

Tech billionaire Elon Musk also has his own PAC. According to research by the New York Times, this and other PACs have transferred around $100 million over the past four years to Building America’s Future, the association behind Kamala Harris’ fake ads. According to US law, the association does not have to report how much donations “Building America’s Future” actually received until after the election on November 5th. The association does not have to disclose which donors the money came from.

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The association’s misleading election advertisements on Facebook are also not illegal. Freedom of speech in the US also covers lies in election advertising, writes NPR, citing legal experts. As the broadcaster reports, citing Facebook data, the “Progress 2028” account has so far placed 13 different Harris ads, which have been played a total of 8.7 million times (as of October 30). It is unclear how many Facebook users saw ads multiple times. Even if the misleading advertisements are not illegal, criticism of the approach is growing.

“The ads honestly revealed who paid for them,” NPR quoted civil rights activist Robert Weissman of the lobbying group Public Citizen as saying. “But the name ‘Progress 2028’ just sounds like a Harris organization, even though that’s not the case.” Weissman has called on Facebook to remove the misleading ads from the site, but so far has been unsuccessful. The Facebook parent company Meta claims that “Progress 2028” complies with the site’s rules because it discloses who pays for the advertising.

But civil rights activist Weissman believes this is fake: “Meta denies responsibility for this voter deception, even though Meta is 100 percent responsible for it. Yes, freedom of speech also protects the right to lie, but that doesn’t stop Meta from running the ads to manage his side.”

It is impossible to measure how much the false ads on Facebook are damaging Kamala Harris’ election campaign. But experts are alarmed: “The tactics behind such ads are not new,” NPR quotes US political scientist Kathleen Hall Jamieson. “What is new, however, is the reach and its possible influence on politics. Social media offers well-funded advertising customers completely new opportunities to specifically reach undecided voters without them having to fear the opposite effect because their ads are obviously fake.”