On September 2, 2024, the site “KBSF – San Francisco News» publishes an article in which Democratic candidate Kamala Harris is accused of running over a thirteen-year-old girl in 2011, leaving her disabled, and then threatening her family in order to keep the secret. According to the story, the young woman decided to tell her story through a video interview with KSFThere's a problem: the journal doesn't exist, the alleged victim doesn't exist, and x-rays of the phantom damage suffered have been stolen online.
For those in a hurry
- The website that spread the fake news was created a few days before it was published.
- “KBSF – San Francisco News” is not an American newspaper.
- There is no evidence of the incident that occurred in San Francisco in 2011.
- There is no confirmation of the existence of the elusive victim.
- The plates shown by the elusive victim, to demonstrate the damage suffered, belong to two different people in China and the Netherlands.
Analysis
This is how the narration is reported in Italian:
Kamala Harris hit a 13-year-old girl and fled the scene in 2011. Thirteen years ago, Kamala Harris, then California's attorney general, was responsible for a hit-and-run and then another felony when she hit two pedestrians, leaving black teenager Alisha Brown injured on the ground. Harris could see that the victim needed medical attention, but she still left the scene of the collision in a hurry. The girl was confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life. According to Alisha, the day after the incident, Attorney Harris' “men” went to the hospital where the victim was staying and threatened her mother with consequences if she didn't report it or contact the police. The girl decided to make the incident public only now, that is, after her mother's death in 2024, because she was afraid of the consequences for her mother. The consequences his mother would have had if only someone had made this story public (and herein lies Harris' second, even more serious crime)
At the top right you can read the writing “KBSF-TV” relating to the site of the same name. The video is present in the article of the site, currently inaccessible.
The newly created site
Russian propaganda during the invasion of Ukraine was characterized by the creation of fake news sites, masquerading as newspapers with fancy names, to spread false news.
“KBSF – San Francisco News» is not an American newspaper at all. Moreover, the site was created recently. The domain was in fact created on August 20, 2024, a few days before the article was published.
The Elusive Victim
It is strange that the site reports the name of the alleged victim differently: in the text it calls her Alisha Brown, in the video Alicia Brown. As verified by colleagues from Political factThere is no match for an alleged “Alisha” or “Alicia Brown” in San Francisco.
The photo of the 2018 accident
The article reports the address of the alleged incident, but San Francisco police told their colleagues at Political factdid not observe any road accidents in the region in 2011. The image of the accident, shown in the video and in the cover image of the fake article, dates back to an episode in 2018.
The stolen plates
The video shows the girl's alleged X-rays after the accident.
As verified by colleagues from BBC CheckThe left plate belongs to a 58-year-old Chinese man. The image dates back to 2010, a year before the elusive fake news incident against Kamala Harris.
The plate on the right belongs to a twelve-year-old Dutch girl. The image was published in 2017 in an article reporting on a few cases of pelvic fractures from 1993 to 2013.
Conclusions
The entire narrative, which sees Kamala Harris accused of running over a 13-year-old girl in 2011 and leaving her disabled, does not add up. The fake news story was launched by a newly created website that does not appear to be a newspaper at all. The content of the video is misleading, as it shows an actress posing as the elusive girl disabled by Harris by showing X-rays taken from Chinese and Dutch scientific publications.
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