A conspiracy theory that claims President Joe Biden is now tall after mysteriously growing several inches is slowly becoming the latest hot meme.

The tall Biden conspiracy theory

Last week, far-right conspiracy theorists cited a video of Biden outside the White House as proof that he had grown inexplicably. The theory alleges that Biden, who recently announced his plans to withdraw from the presidential election, has been replaced by a clone, given that he appears much taller than normal standing next to his wife Jill.

"Biden grew a few inches while he was missing for five days..." one user wrote.

The conspiracy theory comes not long after far-right figures claimed that Biden was either on death's door or outright deceased. Yet with that theory easily debunked given the president's public appearances, conservatives latched onto the Biden clone claim instead.

While Biden does look taller than his wife in the above video, the difference is attributable to the low angle of the camera as well as Jill Biden's walking a short distance behind him.

But at least some right-wing users appear to be taking the claim less seriously and have instead begun sharing memes.

Tall Biden Memes

In one example this week, a video altered by a group known as the "Dilley Meme Team" depicts Biden as even taller than before.

"Is it just me, or is Joe getting taller? Is that even Joe?" one of the meme's creators asked.

They followed up the post with an even more exaggerated Biden, who overshadowed Marine One on the White House lawn.

In that clip, Biden walks next to Jill and his son Hunter, causing the camera to shake with each step. They also add sound effects to each step.

The Daily Dot reached out to Brenden Dilley, a podcast host who runs the team that created the video, to inquire about the post. Dilley responded with a screenshot of the Daily Dot's previous coverage of the meme team alongside the statement: "You're welcome to blow me first."

In another post, Biden is towering over the nation's Capitol building.

A caption on the picture states: "At this rate of growth Biden will soon be unstoppable."

Trump's 18-year-old son Barron, who is a staggering 6'9, also found himself in the mix.

"I await their titanic duel," another said in a manipulated image.

Other posts referred to Biden as "Joeliath" and "Giant Joe," while some argued that his nickname should be changed from Dark Brandon to Tall Brandon.

"To all video editors... Now I crave a thread of Giant Joe memes," one user said.

The conspiracy is bigger than the meme

Although the memes were quite apparent to conservatives, they still dwarfed the conspiracy theory that alleged Biden had really replaced by a much taller body double.

"Joe Biden has never been 6’ 4 tall like the ‘body double’ towering over Jill and White House aides," another added. "And he’s never in his life moved as well as this other ‘body double’ caught on the way to his car."

Prominent Trump supporter Bill Mitchell also hyped the claims, posting in image he claimed of Biden in 2022 and 2024.

While the conspiracy theory remains prominent among mainline supporters of former President Donald Trump, the tall Biden memes appear here to stay.

At least until he leaves office next year.

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Vice President Kamala Harris is developing a new fan base: white dudes.

As her presidential campaign ramps up, a group of white men formed a coalition known as "White Dudes for Harris."

The group plans to kick off Monday night via a virtual call that will feature speakers including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D), singer Josh Groban, actor Mark Hamill, and others.

"Together, we aren’t going to sit around and let the MAGA crowd bully other white guys into voting for a hateful and divisive ideology because we understand that under MAGA everyone loses," the RSVP page for Monday's call reads. "We know that as white dudes, we have both a strong, and positive role to play in America’s shared future, and it begins with all of us cutting through the MAGA crap and reminding the folks who have co-opted American symbols what America actually means."

White Dudes for Harris also launched a $35 hat with its slogan ahead of the meeting.

The group said that nearly 80,000 people have RSVP'd and it collectively raised more than $300,000 in support of Harris' campaign.

What do Democrats think about White Dudes for Harris?

Democratic influencers and those planning to attend the call praised the initial organizing.

"Tonight's call represents a promising attempt to create a movement and a permission structure to lift many white dudes out of the MAGA whirlpool they've gotten sucked into," wrote one person on X. "It will allow for tough but necessary conversations that can create healing, movement, and unity around Kamala Harris and Democratic candidates like her."

He continued: "The guys organizing tonight’s call were inspired by the Black women and men, as well as all the other folks, who've organized calls over the last week. White men haven't organized ourselves well around Democratic values, which has been detrimental to the country and our ability to win elections."

Joked the pro-Democrat account VoteDarkBrandon: "Folks—white boy summer is here," riffing on the right-wing attempts to claim the phrase.

At the same time, critics of Harris were quick to put the group on blast.

Some accounts posted images of transgender women while making fun of the initiative, while others took digs at the manliness of the attendees.

"White dudes for Harris?? The Democrats return to their segregationist roots," slammed one person.

"If you belong to 'White Dudes for Harris', you've turned in your man card and didn't even realize it," snarked someone else.

"These dudes would be melting down if there was a 'White Dudes for Trump,'" mused another person.

Asked one user: "How beta-male can you be?"

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X owner Elon Musk is feuding with California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) over an AI-generated campaign video that alters the speech of Vice President Kamala Harris.

On Friday, Musk promoted a video created by the right-wing YouTuber "Mr Reagan" that uses an AI voice generator to depict Harris calling President Joe Biden senile.

"I, Kamala Harris, am your Democrat candidate for president because Joe Biden finally exposed his senility at the debate," the AI audio says. "Thanks, Joe."

The fake Harris goes on in the nearly two-minute-long video, which uses footage from a real Harris campaign ad, to refer to herself as "the ultimate diversity hire" before stating that any criticism of her is "both sexist and racist."

"I may not know the first thing about running the country but remember that's a good thing if you're a deep state puppet," the ad continues. "I had four years under the tutelage of the ultimate deep state puppet, a wonderful mentor, Joe Biden."

Although the text in Mr Reagan's post described the video as a "Kamala Harris Campaign Ad PARODY," the footage itself does not include any such disclaimers. And while many would argue that the audio content is unmistakably manipulated and satirical, critics, such as Newsom, took issue with the clip.

"Manipulating a voice in an 'ad' like this one should be illegal," Newsom wrote. "I'll be signing a bill in a matter of weeks to make sure it is."

The bill Newsom is referring to is known as "The Defending Democracy from Deepfake Deception Act" and would require major online platforms to label certain content as "inauthentic, fake, or false" during election season. Election-related content deemed “materially deceptive" would be outright banned.

In response, Musk, as well as his right-wing supporters, flooded Newsom's replies.

Musk himself made reference to his testicles while criticizing Newsom's remarks.

"I checked with renowned world authority, Professor Suggon Deeznutz, and he said parody is legal in America," Musk said.

Musk followed up by issuing a poll to his more than 191 million followers asking whether Newsom should create an endowed chair at the University of California for the imaginary professor.

Ironically, as noted by the Verge, Musk's promotion of the altered video without context is actually in violation of X's policies.

Aside from Newsom, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) also pushed back on Musk by pointing to legislation aimed at curtailing such content.

"If Elon Musk and X let this go and don’t label it as altered AI content, they will not only be violating X’s own rules, they’ll be unleashing an entire election season of fake AI voice and image-altered content with no limits, regardless of party," Klobuchar said on Threads.

Reacting to the video, the Harris campaign argued in a statement that the "American people want the real freedom, opportunity and security Vice-President Harris is offering; not the fake, manipulated lies of Elon Musk and Donald Trump."

As it stands, Musk has not labeled the video as manipulated. Musk's post highlighting the video has already been viewed nearly 130 million times.

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Ever since former President Donald Trump announced Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) as his running mate in the 2024 presidential election, Vance has dealt with some peculiar criticisms. Some joked that Vance had a sexual relationship with a couch. Others claimed that Vance once shared a screenshot on X that showed him having searched for a video of a woman and a dolphin being intimate.

Now, people are just saying he's weird, including Vice President Kamala Harris' official campaign X account. Harris is running for the Democratic nomination for president.

"JD Vance is weird and creepy," @KamalaHQ tweeted on Friday regarding Vance's comments about a "federal response" to stop women from traveling to other states to get an abortion.

In response, many right-wing influencers and well-known online figures posted memes, images, and videos to prove that the people who call Vance weird are actually weird themselves. Many of these posts focus on drag queens, non-binary and trans people, and the LGBTQ community in general.

Donald Trump Jr. posted a video of Harris high-fiving drag queen Pattiegonia, whose real name is Wyn Wiley. In the video, Harris and Wiley reference Kylie Minogue's song "Padam Padam." Wiley was invited by the Biden administration to the White House to celebrate Pride Month and has met with lawmakers about climate change.

"'JD Vance is weird' - Team Kamala Harris," Trump Jr. said on X yesterday.

Phillip Buchanan, who goes by Catturd online and has almost 3 million followers on X, also posted a photo of Harris and Wiley.

"JD Vance is so weird," he wrote.

Buchanan also posted a photo of Admiral Rachel Levine, who is the Department of Health and Human Services' Assistant Secretary of Health. Levine is trans.

Chaya Raichik, who runs @LibsOfTikTok, posted a video of Harris with Queer Eye star Jonathan Van Ness, who is non-binary. Raichik posts about LGBTQ educators online and her tweets have been connected to more than twenty bomb threats across the country.

Other prominent right-wing accounts posted similar tweets. Mostly Peaceful Latinas, a conservative podcast hosted by Linda Catalina and Isabella Rodriguez, posted photos of Rose Montoya and Dylan Mulvaney on its X account.

Montoya was invited to the White House for Pride Month in 2023, where she posed for photos topless. According to a statement from White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, Montoya is no longer welcome at the White House. She is trans.

Mulvaney, who is also trans, is an influencer who is well-known for her "Days of Girlhood" series in which she documented the ins and outs of her transition. Last year, she partnered with Bud Light which resulted in a huge right-wing boycott of the beer brand.

"'JD Vance is weird,'" the account wrote.

@GrandOldMemes, a conservative meme account with over 575,000 followers, took a different approach: It posted a meme that features the anti-semitic hate symbol "the happy merchant" with signs that say "Harris for President" and "Protect Trans Kids."

Vance's response to the hullaballoo was to post a video of Harris saying her pronouns at a 2020 CNN Town Hall.

In his less than two years in the Senate, Vance has introduced anti-trans legislation and made many anti-LGBTQ statements.

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The Heritage Foundation, the juggernaut right-wing think tank behind Project 2025, an ambitious uber-conservative policy platform to implement if former President Donald Trump is reelected this year, is on a crusade to solve the assassination attempt against him.

This week, it revealed it purchased location data from the address of Trump’s would-be assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks to pinpoint his travel.

And they've unearthed some very, very, very dubious ties to the FBI.

“We found the assassin’s connections through our in-depth analysis of mobile ad data to track movements of Crooks and his associates,” the think tank's Oversight Project wrote to open a thread they posted on Monday.

“To do this, we tracked devices that regularly visited both Crooks’s home and place of work and followed them.”

The thread highlights those devices—which could be tied to Crooks, his parents, or other people in the vicinity of his home—traveling to places Project Oversight says looks fishy.

Most concerning to them, one device went somewhere near FBI headquarters once.

"Someone who regularly visited Crooks home and work also visited a building in Washington, DC located in Gallery Place. This is in the same vicinity of an @FBI office on June 26, 2023," it wrote. “Who’s device is this?” it added darkly.

The map shared shows downtown Washington, D.C. with two blue circles, indicating they visited a building in Gallery Place between 7th Street Northwest and 6th Street Northwest on June 26, 2023.

The FBI main office is within a half mile of the dots. However, the location is right next to the Capital One Arena, where the Washinton Capitals and Wizards play.

Also on the block are numerous restaurants and chain eateries. One of the blue circles on Project Oversight’s map looks like it’s in the Gallery Place complex, which includes a Haagen Daaz and a Regal Cinema.

"Imagine doing this level of research but not bothering to note it appears this person just ate at Clyde's lol," joked one person on X.

The project also highlighted a device “linked to Crooks” visiting Plymouth, Massachusetts in early March, and a device “linked to Crook’s work” traveling from his home in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania to Butler, Pennsylvania two times on July 4 and July 8. 

Crooks worked at a nursing home and rehab center in Bethel Park, about a 50-mile drive from Butler, where Crooks opened fire on the rally Trump was speaking at on July 13, killing one and seriously injuring two others. According to a map the Oversight Project posted, the device stopped off at a Home Depot in Butler, and all activity on the device ended on July 12.

The Oversight Project also linked a device they say is linked to Crooks to Allegheny Arms & Gun Works on Aug 30, 2023.

That was the gun store in Butler where Crooks bought 50 rounds of ammunition just hours before he opened fire on the rally, reported the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

A conspiratorial strain runs through a lot of the Oversight Project’s thread. They end it by saying that they wouldn’t be sharing the information congressional task force charged with investigating the assassination attempt because of the “connective tissue between that entity and FBI, USSS, and other entities.”

Plenty of posters picked up on that speculative angle.

“Democrats and FBI were in on it!” claimed @_BruceBane in one post.

“I strongly recommend bringing in total outsiders, such as a retired military inspector general, and providing them with the necessary authority to root out this corrupt branch of government,” suggested 8chan owner Jim Watkins. “Competent and loyal outsiders still exist and could effectively address these urgent issues.”

“They need to completely hand it off to Pennsylvania State Police,” proposed @Distress99. “Any federal agency would be absurd—these potential allegations create a clear conflict of interest.”

Other posters were baffled by just how the organization got access to the granular level of data needed to pinpoint what might be Crooks’ movements.

“How did you get access to this type of data?” asked @zephyr_wild, with plenty of posters lining up to explain that it comes from advertisers which businesses sell to other businesses.

“It's generic aggregated commercial tower data.  It is used in targeted advertising and is pretty granular,” wrote @admiral_nemo. “It is likely ‘scrubbed’.  Meaning, the devices are trackable... but identity of device holder is unknown.”

“This is why flashlight apps want your location and contacts and why you can't disable the stock weather app,” added @Jimerican2.

People present at the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot were tracked by similar advertising data, which included 100,000 locations pings distributed across thousands of smartphones. The New York Times described how ostensibly anonymized data can actually be cross-referenced across multiple databases using a unique identifier called a Mobile Ad ID. That ID can be matched with a wealth of other data in other, non-anonymous databases. These include information like first and last names, home addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and even precise locations.

That level of tracking capability had some people impressed, but it also made them uneasy about the power that sort of data could have for think tanks like Heritage.

“The amount of information gathered by digital ADVERTISING is wild, looks to be what this OSINT account used to pull data,” posted @WeaponOutfitter in reaction to the Project Oversight thread.

Others were less sanguine about the capabilities on display.

“yo this is fucking terrifying. this data should not be accessible. what the fuck,” posted @daysnotlived succinctly. 

“Feels like the real takeaway here is ‘The Heritage Foundation has unrestricted surveillance powers,” added @ebeggin1.

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The Associated Press (AP) deleted an article fact-checking the false claim that Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio) made love to a couch, a move that has bolstered the belief among some that the allegation is actually true.

Earlier this month, a false claim went viral on X that Vance, who was recently chosen to be Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's running mate, admitted to having sex with a couch in his 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis.

The claim quickly went viral and produced countless memes on social media. But, as reported by the Daily Dot, the allegation isn't true and no such passage exists in Vance's book.

Yet the AP's now-removed fact-check is leading some to revive not just the claim but the memes as well.

"AP fact-checked what was a joke from left-wing Twitter - but the link for this is dead now and I can no longer find the story on the AP website. What is going on?" asked CNN's Andy Kaczynski.

Others joked that the AP's retraction was even funnier than the meme itself, which many were aware was a joke from the beginning.

"The AP retracting their Fact Check of JD Vance having relations with a glove wedged in the cushions of a couch is ten times funnier than them publishing it in the first place which in turn is ten times funnier than the actual allegation," another said.

The AP eventually came forward to state that it deleted the fact-check due to issues with the article's editorial process.

"The story, which did not go out on the wire to our customers, didn't go through our standard editing process," an AP spokesperson said. "We are looking into how that happened."

But for those in on the joke, the AP's statement only added fuel to the fire.

"The only thing that @AP can definitively say based on their own reporting is that JD Vance didn't write about having fucked a 'couch' or 'sofa' in his memoir," another said. "There is no evidence whatsoever that he's not shagging the settee."

Although the Vance-couch saga has been debunked, it doesn't seem to matter anymore. Couch memes will almost certainly follow Vance until the internet gloms on to something else.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Congress yesterday, speaking about the Israeli-Hamas war, in which over 39,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli military offensives.

Thousands of protestors congregated outside the Capitol and across Washington, D.C., including musician Dave Matthews, who spoke with Al Jazeera about his opposition to Netanyahu.

Now, everyone is stanning Matthews—even if some weren't fans of him before.

Quds News Network, a Palestinian news network, shared a clip of Matthews' interview.

"It's disgusting to show support for someone that doesn't deserve our support," Matthews said. "I'm ashamed that my tax dollars are going to the brutalizing of an entire people."

Matthews also said Netanyahu shouldn't be welcomed "into the so-called sacred halls of our government."

"This has been an ongoing struggle for people that just want to have dignity and be able to live independent lives and dream of a better future," Matthews said. "And this man is the pinnacle of the obstacle toward that freedom."

Regardless of their prior feelings about Matthews, many X users said they're fans of him now.

"I take back every mean thing I ever said about the Dave Matthews Band back in the 1990s," one person tweeted.

"I’m sorry I hid in the bathroom at Joe Robbie stadium to get away from your music when you opened for The Rolling Stones in 1999 Dave Matthews," another person said. "I apologize."

"Time to revisit Dave Matthews!" someone else tweeted.

One X user even created a "Dave Matthews Apology Form" that offers options for why someone hated on his music including "I didn't realize he was a lifelong anti-apartheid activist who renounced his South African citizenship rather than serve in the military" and "the media convinced me the poop bus thing was his fault."

Matthews was born in South Africa and drafted into the country's compulsory military service. As he was opposed to the regime, he moved back to the U.S., where his family had lived when he was a kid.

In 2003, his band's tour bus dropped 800 pounds of waste off of a Chicago bridge onto passengers who were on an architecture tour in the city's river. Matthews' tour manager had to pay a fine, serve probation, and do community service.

The apology form concludes with "I will hereby respect Dave Matthews and I will never make my need to seem cool his problem."

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Right-wingers online are miffed Jennifer Aniston criticized Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance for claiming in 2021 that the U.S. was being run by "childless cat ladies."

Aniston weighed in on a recirculating Fox News clip from 2021 where Vance complained that "we're effectively run in this country, via the Democrats, via our corporate oligarchs by a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too."

Vance—who at the time was running for Senate—specifically called out Vice President Kamala Harris, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) for not having children.

“And it’s just a basic fact—you look at Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, AOC—the entire future of the Democrats is controlled by people without children," Vance said. "And how does it make any sense that we’ve turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it?”

Harris does not have biological children but has been a stepmother for nearly ten years. Buttigieg, at the time of Vance's remarks, was in the process of trying to adopt. The Buttigiegs announced the birth of their adopted twins in September 2021.

The Friends star wrote on her Instagram story Wednesday: “I truly can't believe this is coming from a potential VP of The United States."

"Mr. Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day," she continued. "I hope she will not need to turn to IVF as a second option. Because you are trying to take that away from her, too."

In June, Vance, along with the vast majority of Republican senators, blocked The Right to IVF Act, which would have codified the right to in vitro fertilization and lowered its cost.

Republicans criticized the bill as an election-year stunt, though Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Katie Britt (R-Ala.) did introduce a competing bill. That bill did not move forward due to opposition by one of The Right to IVF Act's sponsors, who argued it would create burdensome requirements that would force IVF clinics to close.

Aniston does not have any children but previously spoke out in a 2022 cover story for Allure about undergoing multiple rounds of IVF.

“I was trying to get pregnant. It was a challenging road for me, the baby-making road,” Aniston said.

She added: "I was going through IVF, drinking Chinese teas, you name it. I was throwing everything at it. I would’ve given anything if someone had said to me, ‘Freeze your eggs. Do yourself a favor.’ You just don’t think it. So here I am today. The ship has sailed.”

In the wake of Aniston's criticism, fans of Vance are hitting back hard—and some are even targeting the actress for lacking children.

"Jennifer Aniston is 55 years old, childless, and miserable," wrote one X account.

"LMAO Jennifer Aniston should've found someone when she was in her prime," sniped another. "Too bad so sad.. Have fun with your cats."

"Jennifer Aniston is an attractive woman. She's also got psychological & personality problems," someone else asserted. "That's why every man she's ever entered a relationship with left her & never looked back. Her opinion of Trump & Vance isn't worth shit."

Right-wing commentator Ian Miles Cheong took a swipe at Aniston too, saying, "Oh no, the cat ladies are offended."

But many others did not hesitate to defend Aniston and echo her criticism.

"Jennifer Aniston has dogs. Not cats," quipped one person.

"I have been trying to warn every conservative man I know - these JD comments are activating women across all sides, including my most conservative Trump supporting friends," said Meghan McCain. "These comments have caused real pain and are just innately unchristian. This is not who we are."

Echoed someone else: "Childless cat lady rhetoric and going against IVF might just pave the way to lose the elections. These men have completely underestimated how triggering women’s fertility journeys have been. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned - and who could not have children…"

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An alleged leak of internal code from X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter, purports to show protections granted to right-wing accounts that would allow them to break the site's rules without consequence.

But while the "leak" sparked instant backlash and outrage, numerous tech experts say the alleged code doesn't appear real.

On Wednesday, a screenshot began circulating on X of what's been dubbed "the Twitter API leak," which alleges to show "Okta configs" for X.

Okta is a third-party site that handles user verification for platforms.

The account sharing the image, a user named "Anti-Fascist Turtle" who has since been suspended, claimed that X had a list of users who did not have to abide by the platform's Terms of Service.

"New Twitter API leak reveals that there's a group of 'protected users' that are allowed to break the Terms of Service without consequence," the user wrote. "Even including a list of whitelisted slurs," the user said. "Also worth mentioning that all of the listed accounts are right-wing in their contents."

What is the Twitter API leak?

So-called protected users in the alleged code include members of the Trump family, such as President Donald Trump, Eric Trump, and Donald Trump Jr. Other protected users are listed as Elon Musk, who owns the X platform, as well as far-right influencers Andrew Tate and Libs of TikTok, and even the account for the Russian government.

Protected terms are listed to show highly specific racial slurs, as well as the words "illegal" and "Mexican."

The so-called leak quickly went viral among left-leaning users on X, who argued that the sudden suspension of Anti-Fascist Turtle suggested that the code was real.

"Just in case you missed it, Elon just nuked @TheAntifaTurtle for making a callout on an API leak revealing a list of users with immunity, who are allowed to say any kind of slurs or hate speech without any consequences, all from major right wing influencers," one user said. "Great site guys."

The source of the claim appears to be a user from a chat room run by the malware hosting service vx-underground. In a post to X on Thursday, vx-underground said that the screenshot was shared to social media after being discussed internally, despite concerns that the leak wasn't real.

"We get links, stories, leaks, etc. all the time," vx-underground wrote. "We get tons of blatant lies, misinformation, exaggerated stories, etc. was actually really hurtful when someone leaked this. Broke my heart that someone in our close circle of friends would violate our trust tl;dr. sad boi hours."

Tech experts were also unconvinced. Numerous users—including cybersecurity researcher and hacker maia arson crimew—pushed back on the code's legitimacy.

In a post to X, maia cast suspicion on the leak and argued that "it looks like perfect bait to stir up the pot and later make fun of people for believing it."later

The URL where the code was supposedly discovered does not exist and was never archived. And the list of protected users, maia noted "seems perfectly tailored to 'triggering the left' and would make little no sense to be implemented in a config file."

The post also seems to be fortuitous. Numerous accounts that shared the "leak" claimed they believed Tate had recently been given a special exception to use racial slurs, claiming to see an uptick of them on his page.

And, suddenly, there was the evidence.

While sites like X have features that require manual moderation on high-profile accounts to protect them from mass-reporting campaigns, those features are "only accessible on internal tooling and is a database flag on accounts, not a list," maia added.

And while maia says her analysis, much like the leak, is largely speculation, she "considers the burden of proof for such a massive claim to be on the side making such a clam."

"as of right now i consider the into to be disinformation and given there does not appear to be a verifiable archive of the URL the data is claimed to be from I do not consider the information to be verifiable without comment from twitter," she said.

In response to maia, a former employee of Twitter also said that, at least prior to Musk's takeover, moderation was done through internal tools, not Okta and whitelists as shown in the supposed leak.

Other prominent users, such as popular YouTuber and cybersecurity researcher Ryan McBeth, also expressed doubts that Okta would be used that way.

In a statement to journalist Benedict Garman, Okta also confirmed that the alleged leak was fabricated.

"We can confirm that this is definitely an invalid url and we confirm the screenshot is fake," an Okta spokesperson said.

X has not publicly commented on the alleged leak, but the platform placed "Manipulated media" tags on posts discussing the issue.

The tag has done little to quell the belief among some left-wing users that the code is real, thinking it's a double fake by Musk to hide his secret racism protocols.

But for now, without any further verification, the so-called Twitter API leak does not appear to be legitimate.

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The post No, Elon Musk’s secret racism protocols for Trump, Andrew Tate, and Russia didn’t leak appeared first on The Daily Dot.

Democrats focused their messaging upon the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 program in recent weeks, with mentions of the over 900-page uber-conservative policy document tripling since the beginning of June, according to an analysis by the Washington Post. 

That push has some Republicans distancing themselves from the project, including their 2024 nominee former President Donald Trump. But despite Trump’s attempts to back away from the policy proposal, he may have a hard time pretending his ticket doesn’t endorse it. His vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance wrote the foreword to a book by the architect of the agenda, which is coming out in September.

An Amazon presale page for "Dawn's Early Light: Taking Back Washington to Save America” has been circulating online, tagging Vance as the man behind the foreword. 

The "Dawn's Early Light" sales copy explicitly references Project 2025.

"Heritage Foundation president and Project 2025 head Kevin Roberts outlines a peaceful 'Second American Revolution' for voters looking to shift the power back into the hands of the people," it reads.

Vance, prior to his selection as Trump's vice presidential pick, tweeted about his eagerness to endorse the book.

Roberts, who is the president of the Heritage Foundation, said at the beginning of July that the project was part of a “Second American Revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be.”

Vance's own words in his blurb for the book are a nod to violent revolution.

“Never before has a figure with Roberts’s depth and stature within the American Right tried to articulate a genuinely new future for conservatism ... We are now all realizing that it’s time to circle the wagons and load the muskets. In the fights that lay ahead, these ideas are an essential weapon,” Vance wrote. 

But its stark vision shocked those on the left and is being used to galvanize Democrats.

“It is really important that voters understand that Donald Trump in a second term would be far worse, far more dangerous and far more extreme than he was even in his first term,” TJ Ducklo, a senior adviser to the then-Biden campaign, told the Post in the first week of July. “That is a core argument that we are making and must continue to make to voters, and Project 2025 is one of the most effective ways we can make that point.”

Vice President Kamala Harris, now the presumptive Democratic Party nominee, has also made Project 2025 an early focus in her campaign, evoking the threat of it at a rally at the Indiana Convention Center on Wednesday.

“We must also recognize there are those who are trying to take us backward," Harris said in her speech. "Can you believe they put that in writing? This represents an outright attack on our children, our families and our future. These extremists want to take us back, but we are not going back."

The Daily Dot has not reviewed the full text of the book’s foreword by Vance but has reached out to HarperCollins.

Trump made opposition to the plan part of his campaign speech over the brewing public backlash.

At the beginning of July, Trump posted on Truth Social saying that he “know[s] nothing about Project 2025. I have no idea who is behind it. I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal. Anything they do, I wish them luck, but I have nothing to do with them.”

“They read some of the things, and they are extreme,” Trump said about the project during his speech at his first rally with Vance in Georgia this week. “They’re seriously extreme.”

“But I don’t know anything about it,” Trump said standing in front of a Trump-Vance 2024 podium. “I don’t want to know anything about it.”

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