Photograph was used in fake news Clinton story Birmingham Mail picture taken by US site during campaign
APHOTOGRAPH published by Post sister paper the Birmingham Mail of ballot boxes delivered to city polling stations became part of a ‘fake news’ story shared with millions of people during the US presidential election campaign.
The photograph was presented as evidence that candidate Hillary Clinton was cheating in her battle against Donald Trump in the run-up to the November 2016 vote.
And although the claim was totally false and the picture used without authorisation, the story made thousands of dollars for its author.
The photograph, taken in May 2015, showed ballot boxes being taken to Sheldon Community Centre, Birmingham, ready to be delivered to polling stations for the general election.
It was also used on the Birmingham Mail website to illustrate genuine stories in the run-up to the 2016 local elections.
But in September last year, it turned up on a website called Christian Times Newspaper – which claimed it showed how “tens of thousands” of fraudulent votes for Hillary Clinton had been found in a ware- house in Ohio. Officials at Franklin County, Ohio, announced they had launched an investigation and the claims appeared to be untrue. But The New York reported that Crowdtangle, tracks web audiences, said eventually shared with six people. The newspaper interviewed the person who invented the story, 23-year-old college graduate Camer- Times which it was million on Harris, who admitted he did it to make money. He bought the ChristianTimesNewspaper.com domain for just five dollars and spent 15 minutes working on the story.
The high number of readers meant that he made 5,000 dollars, thanks to adverts placed on the page through a service by Google.
The story claimed: “The Clinton campaign’s likely goal was to slip the fake ballot boxes in with the real ballot boxes when they went to official election judges on November 8.”
The picture was added to give it more credibility. Mr Harris simply searched for a picture of “ballot boxes” on Google, found the Birmingham Mail photograph and made some minor changes before adding it to the story.
The New York Times reports Mr Harris said: “I spent the money on student loans, car payments and rent.”
Google no longer places adverts on websites identified as running “fake news”.
Birmingham Post & Mail editor-inchief Marc Reeves said he was considering action over the unauthorised use of the photograph.