Did teens, TikTok users and fans of Korean pop music troll the president of the United States?
For more than a week before Donald Trump香蕉视频直播檚 first campaign rally in three months on Saturday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, these tech-savvy groups opposing the president mobilized to reserve tickets for an event they had no intention of attending. While it香蕉视频直播檚 unlikely they were responsible for the low turnout, their antics may have inflated the campaign香蕉视频直播檚 expectations for attendance numbers that led to Saturday香蕉视频直播檚 disappointing show.
香蕉视频直播淢y 16 year old daughter and her friends in Park City Utah have hundreds of tickets. You have been rolled by America香蕉视频直播檚 teens,香蕉视频直播� veteran Republican campaign strategist Steve Schmidt tweeted on Saturday. The tweet garnered more than 100,000 likes and many responses from people who say they or their kids did the same.
Reached by telephone Sunday, Schmidt called the rally an 香蕉视频直播渦nmitigated disaster香蕉视频直播� 香蕉视频直播� days after Trump campaign chairman Brad Parscale tweeted that more than a million people requested tickets for the rally through Trump香蕉视频直播檚 campaign website.
Andrew Bates, a spokesperson for Trump香蕉视频直播檚 Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, said the turnout was a sign of weakening voter support. 香蕉视频直播淒onald Trump has abdicated leadership and it is no surprise that his supporters have responded by abandoning him,香蕉视频直播� he said.
In a statement, the Trump campaign blamed the 香蕉视频直播渇ake news media香蕉视频直播� for 香蕉视频直播渨arning people away from the rally香蕉视频直播� over COVID-19 and protests against racial injustice around the country.
香蕉视频直播淟eftists and online trolls doing a victory lap, thinking they somehow impacted rally attendance, don香蕉视频直播檛 know what they香蕉视频直播檙e talking about or how our rallies work,香蕉视频直播� Parscale wrote. 香蕉视频直播淩eporters who wrote gleefully about TikTok and K-Pop fans 香蕉视频直播� without contacting the campaign for comment 香蕉视频直播� behaved unprofessionally and were willing dupes to the charade.香蕉视频直播�
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On midday Sunday, it was possible to sign up to stream a recap of the Tulsa event later in the day through Trump香蕉视频直播檚 website. It requested a name, email address and phone number. There was no age verification in the signup process, though the site required a PIN to verify phone numbers.
Inside the 19,000-seat BOK Center in Tulsa, where Trump thundered that 香蕉视频直播渢he silent majority is stronger than ever before,香蕉视频直播� numerous seats were empty. Tulsa Fire Department spokesperson Andy Little said the city fire marshal香蕉视频直播檚 office reported a crowd of just less than 6,200 in the arena.
City officials had expected a crowd of 100,000 people or more in downtown Tulsa, but that never materialized. That said, the rally, which was broadcast on cable, also targeted voters in battleground states such as Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Florida.
Social media users who have followed recent events might not be surprised by the way young people (and some older folks) mobilized to troll the president. They did it not just on TikTok but also on Twitter, Instagram and even Facebook. K-Pop fans 香蕉视频直播� who have a massive, co-ordinated online community and a cutting sense of humour 香蕉视频直播� have become an unexpected ally to American Black Lives Matter protesters.
In recent weeks, they香蕉视频直播檝e been repurposing their usual platforms and hashtags from boosting their favourite stars to backing the Black Lives Matter movement. They flooded right-wing hashtags such as 香蕉视频直播渨hite lives matter香蕉视频直播� and police apps with short video clips and memes of their K-pop stars. Many of the early social media messages urging people to sign up for tickets brought up the fact that the rally had originally been scheduled for Friday, June 19, which is Juneteenth, commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. Tulsa, the location for the rally, was the scene in 1921 of one of the most severe white-on-Black attacks in American history.
Schmidt said he was not surprised. Today香蕉视频直播檚 teens, after all, grew up with phones and have 香蕉视频直播渁bsolutely香蕉视频直播� mastered them, he said. They are also the first generation to have remote Zoom classes and have a 香蕉视频直播渟ubversive sense of humour,香蕉视频直播� having come of age in a world of online trolls and memes, Schmidt said. Most of all, he said, 香蕉视频直播渢hey are aware of what is happening around them.香蕉视频直播�
香蕉视频直播淟ike salmon in the river, they participate politically through the methods and means of their lives,香蕉视频直播� Schmidt added.
That said, the original idea for the mass ticket troll may have come not from a teen but from an Iowa woman. The politics site Iowa Starting Line found that a TikTok video posted on June 11 by Mary Jo Laupp, a 51-year-old grandmother from Fort Dodge, Iowa, suggesting that people book free tickets to 香蕉视频直播渕ake sure there are empty seats.香蕉视频直播� Laupp香蕉视频直播檚 video, which also tells viewers how to stop receiving texts from the Trump campaign after they provide their phone number (simply text 香蕉视频直播淪TOP香蕉视频直播�), has had more than 700,000 likes. It was also possible to sign up for the rally using a fake or temporary phone number from Google Voice, for instance.
As Parscale himself pointed out in a June 14 tweet, though, the ticket signups were not simply about getting bodies to the rally. He called it the 香蕉视频直播淏iggest data haul and rally signup of all time by 10x香蕉视频直播� 香蕉视频直播� meaning the hundreds of thousands of emails and phone numbers the campaign now has in its possession to use for microtargeting advertisements and to reach potential voters.
Sure, it香蕉视频直播檚 possible that many of the emails are fake and that the ticket holders have no intention of voting for Trump in November. But while it香蕉视频直播檚 possible that this 香蕉视频直播渂ad data香蕉视频直播� might prove useless 香蕉视频直播� or even hurt the Trump campaign in some way 香蕉视频直播� experts say there is one clear beneficiary in the end, and that is Facebook. That香蕉视频直播檚 due to the complex, murky ways in which Trump香蕉视频直播檚 political advertising machine is tied up with the social media giant. Facebook wants data on people, and whether that is 香蕉视频直播済ood香蕉视频直播� or 香蕉视频直播渂ad,香蕉视频直播� it will be used to train its systems.
香蕉视频直播淣o matter who signs up or if they go to a rally, Trump gets data to train retargeting on Facebook. FB香蕉视频直播檚 system will use that data in ways that have nothing to do with Trump,香蕉视频直播� tweeted Georgia Tech communications professor Ian Bogost. 香蕉视频直播淢ight these `fake香蕉视频直播� signups mess up the Trump team香蕉视频直播檚 targeting data? Maybe it could, to some extent. But the entire system is so vast and incomprehensible, we香蕉视频直播檒l never really know.香蕉视频直播�
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Barbara Ortutay, Associated Press
Associated Press writer Ali Swenson contributed to this story from Seattle.
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