No, these aren’t authentic photos of Kamala Harris as a call girl

A photo of a piece of paper is drawing attention on social media thanks to two fabricated photos and a baseless claim. 

"THIS IS KAMALA HARRIS (a former call girl in California)," the text on the paper begins. Two images of someone who resembles Harris appear below. She’s looking at the camera in both images and wearing a short skirt, strapless crop tops and choker necklace. 

"Staffers in San Francisco are coming forward stating that Kamala Harris was an escort for judges, politicians and various powerful businessmen to sway court cases and help push leftist policies in the state. Democrats are trying to bury these allogations!" it continues, misspelling allegations. 

An Oct. 27 Instagram post sharing the image was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

We looked for but found no credible evidence, such as news reports, court filings or public statements, to support the accusation that Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, was a call girl or escort in California, much less that she used such a position to push leftist policies there. 

The photos, meanwhile, resemble Harris but seem off.

Hany Farid, a University of California, Berkeley, professor specializing in digital forensics and misinformation, compared one of the photos with a recent photo of Harris for the fact-checking site Snopes and found that their features didn’t align. 

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"You can see that there are significant differences in the shape of the ear," he said. 

Reverse-image searches yielded no credible original or corroborating sources to confirm they show Harris. Other journalists have debunked different claims about what appear to be artificial-intelligence generated images purporting to show Harris as a sex worker. 

As for the staff members in San Francisco, where she served as district attorney, purportedly coming forward to claim Harris was an escort — we found no such testimony. 

We rate this post Pants on Fire!