Twitter Account That Started Misleading Video of ‘MAGA Teen’ Encounter Was Fake: Report

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T. Grant Benson
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WASHINGTON — A teenager from a Catholic school in Kentucky stared at a Native American man during a protest in Washington, D.C. — the video quickly went viral sparking outrage.

As Breaking911 reported, the viral clip did not show the entire encounter and what led up to the standoff.

Now we’re learning the incident apparently went viral after a fake Twitter account posted the video. The account, which has now been suspended by Twitter, was reportedly controlled by a Brazilian blogger who was posing as a California school teacher.

The account ‘@2020fight‘, reportedly sent out more than 100 tweets a day pushing liberal causes. The user claimed to be a woman living in California named Talia. The bio read, “Teacher & Advocate. Fighting for 2020.”

The now viral video was posted to the account with the caption “This MAGA loser gleefully bothering a Native American protester at the Indigenous Peoples March.”

The post soon gained traction and was shared thousands of times.

CNN Business reported: Rob McDonagh, an assistant editor at Storyful, a service that vets content online, was monitoring Twitter activity on Saturday morning and said the @2020fight video was the main version of the incident being shared on social media.

In one indicator of the @2020fight’s video’s virality, multiple newsrooms, including some national American outlets, reached out to the user asking them directly about the video.

McDonagh said he found the account suspicious due to its “high follower count, highly polarized and yet inconsistent political messaging, the unusually high rate of tweets, and the use of someone else’s image in the profile photo.”

Following the CNN report and questions for comment, Twitter suspended the account.

The teen in the video later released a statement explaining what transpired. Watch the video and read the statement here.

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