RTL Today - CNN investigation: Photo of woman working in Luxembourg misused for Trump campaign

A German model working in Luxembourg recently discovered that her photos were misappropriated in a disinformation campaign in the United States to promote former US president Donald Trump.

A woman working in Luxembourg has found herself at the centre of an investigation after her photos were misused for political purposes in the United States. As reported by CNN, Debbie, who resides in Trier but works in Luxembourg as a social media manager, also works as a model in her spare time and regularly shares photos of herself online.

These images were recently misappropriated to create a fake profile on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Debbie, 32, has thus been transformed into Luna, a Wisconsin woman who is a staunch supporter of former President Donald Trump. The fake account posts messages endorsing the Republican candidate, even suggesting to her thousands of followers that he should become president forever.

During an interview with CNN, Debbie expressed shock at this discovery and stated that her likeness had been used without her consent for political propaganda.

The fake account had been active for several months and had garnered around 30,000 followers.

"Of course, I immediately reported the account and asked my friends and followers to also report the fake account, which they did, but nothing happened, it was not removed from the platform," Debbie said.

Unfortunately, Debbie's experience is not unique. A joint investigation by CNN and the Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) uncovered that the identities of 17 European women had been similarly misused in what seems a coordinated disinformation campaign.

A further 56 accounts have been identified, all of which feature images of young women. While some of these images were likely generated by artificial intelligence, most were stolen from real social media accounts. They all share similar messages and hashtags, with many containing noticeable English language errors; experts believe this could indicate foreign involvement.

There is no evidence linking Donald Trump's official campaign to these activities. However, following CNN's enquiry, X reportedly removed most of the fake accounts involved, though the platform has yet to issue an official response.