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Lt. Gov. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania defeated Republican candidate Mehmet Oz in the race for the U.S. Senate seat representing the state. But a recent Instagram post alleges the contest was rigged and evidence is on the social media platform.
Sharing photos of verified Instagram accounts for both candidates and their followers surrounded them – about 149,000 followers for Fetterman and 1.1 million for Oz – an Instagram user said on November 9 ” there is no way this is fair.”
“They think we’re stupid,” it says above the photos.
This post was marked as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false and misleading information on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
The screenshots look true, though when we looked at the candidates’ accounts on November 10, Fetterman had gained about 10,000 new followers after winning the Senate seat.
It’s no surprise that Fetterman, a state legislator, has fewer Instagram followers than Oz, a celebrity doctor who first appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show in 2006.
But social media popularity does not necessarily mean victory at the ballot box. NPR came up with the idea in August during an interview with Syracuse University Professor Jennifer Stromer-Galley, who studies social media messaging. Social media can help amplify a candidate’s profile, Stromer-Galley said, and is “primarily speaking to supporters,” but may involve people from outside the state who don’t. vote that person’s vote.
Consider Beto O’Rourke, the Democratic candidate for governor of Texas who failed to unseat Governor Greg Abbott. Like Oz, O’Rourke has nearly 1.1 million Instagram followers, while Abbott has 162,000.
O’Rourke’s “had a lot of success on social media,” Stromer-Galley told NPR. “It didn’t quite translate into the wins he was hoping for.”
Stacey Abrams, the Democratic candidate for governor of Georgia, has 2.1 million followers. Governor Brian Kemp, who won the election, had a fraction of that number of supporters, about 47,600.
We address claims that Fetterman and Oz’s Instagram accounts show that the election was pants on fire.
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