This viral video of the Patriot Front marchers from the now-suspended “@SherylLewellen” account, which was created just days ago, has over 1 million views:
HAPPENING NOW: About 500 men with riot shields are marching in #WashingtonDC pic.twitter.com/I2GS1vPZGJ
— Reclaim America – PatriotFront.US (@SherylLewellen) December 4, 2021
Screenshot:
Now, if you saw this video earlier on Twitter, the account might have looked a little different. And that’s because the profile photo used to be of an attractive blonde woman whose bio claimed she was a digital/print journo with a love of avocados:
Wait, wait, why then would you create the account with an AI-generated profile pic and a matching fake Facebook profile? Do you even love avocados? pic.twitter.com/PNEoDHM38O
— Murray Rothbard (@MurraySuggests) December 5, 2021
That profile photo was created using AI:
There are multiple actual journalists reporting on this event, but for some reason everyone is sharing this tweet from an account made last month with an AI-generated face pic as its avatar.
Please be cautious about helping potentially inauthentic accounts build an audience. https://t.co/2tKz9MVFDy pic.twitter.com/Tv3CIiEccM
— Conspirador Norteño (@conspirator0) December 5, 2021
“A whole lot of big accounts took the bait on this one”:
The @SherylLewellen account (ID 1464674954272776200) has now removed the GAN-generated profile pic and changed its display name to "Reclaim America – PatriotFront(dot)US".
A whole lot of big accounts took the bait on this one. #DontGetFooledAgain pic.twitter.com/v4opaRfVUo
— Conspirador Norteño (@conspirator0) December 5, 2021
“@SherylLewellen” was tweeting out other Patriot Front content before getting suspended:
. . . and now they're tweeting out a bunch of Patriot Front video content. pic.twitter.com/OKp3FA73T2
— Conspirador Norteño (@conspirator0) December 5, 2021
The account has since admitted that the goal was to “fool journalists into promoting Patriot Front’s demonstration in Washington D.C.”:
This account was created with a fake name and AI generated profile in order to fool journalists into promoting Patriot Front's demonstration in Washington D.C.
— Reclaim America – PatriotFront.US (@SherylLewellen) December 5, 2021
Conservatives will say I am an FBI agent, liberals will say that I am working in the Kremlin. In reality I am a tech-savvy activist who had a good social media marketing strategy.
— Reclaim America – PatriotFront.US (@SherylLewellen) December 5, 2021
Patriot Front does not support Trump or Biden. Patriot Front denounces all violence and criminal activity. Patriot Front has never engaged in violence. Patriot Front does not ask for any personal information whatsoever from those who wish to join.
— Reclaim America – PatriotFront.US (@SherylLewellen) December 5, 2021
Mission accomplished!
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