Web surfers looking up hot topics like Antifa or mini-strokes may suddenly find themselves on a presidential candidate’s campaign website.
Fox News reports that internet trolls are sending web searchers looking up certain topics to presidential campaign sites.
The outlet reports that if a person types Antifa.com into a web browser, they are redirected to JoeBiden.com, which is the former Vice President’s presidential campaign site. A search of Mini-Strokes.com lands browsers on DonaldJTrump.com.
According to Fox News, it is unknown who is behind the site redirections.
The Antifa redirect is likely done as a GOP attack on Biden to mock his response to ongoing violent protests. Antifa stands for “anti-fascist.” The group is opposed to President Donald Trump.
The mini-strokes site popped up after Trump denied having a “series of mini-strokes” after claims he did went viral on social media.
No group or person has taken ownership of purchasing either domain, according to Fox News.
The redirect to the site has been taking place for about a month and has been blasted all over social media.
A GOP congressional candidate tweeted at Biden asking about the redirect.
"Why, if you go to http://Antifa.com, does it take people to your campaign website?" Buzz Patterson wrote.
Sometimes the Antifa site sent users to kamalaharris.org or the self-described anarchist website itsgoingdown.org, according to Fox News.
Forrester Research Analysts Randy Heffner told Fox News the Antifa.com domain name was associated with the registrar “namecheap.com” from 2002.
“This is a long time ago, but it doesn’t mean that whoever registered it back then was in any way associated with (or 'counter-associated' if you will) with Antifa,” Heffner said. “There are people in the market that prospectively acquire domain names, hoping that some future party will want to buy the rights to the domain name at an attractive price.”
The owner of the domain is listed as “WhoisGuard,” which is registered to a PO Box in Panama.
To figure out who the person behind the site is would likely require legal action, according to Heffner.
“All that said, even once a domain name is in operation, various kinds of hacks could nefariously redirect it from its intended destination to one of the hacker’s choosing,” Heffner said.
Trump and Biden campaign teams have used domain names against each other, Fox News reports. It is unknown if either campaign team is behind the Antifa or mini-stroke redirects.
After Biden began a Latino voter program, the Trump campaign bought the URL of its namesake, "Todos Con Biden." A visit to www.todosconbiden.com states in both English and Spanish: “Oops, Joe forgot about Latinos. Joe is all talk.” The only link on the page sends visitors to the Trump campaign’s Latino outreach site, “Latinos for Trump.”
The Biden campaign responded with its purchase of vamostovictory.com. Trump used that phrase last month during a series of campaign events in Texas which was dubbed the "Vamos to Victory," tour. Typing in vamostovictory.com sends searches to trumpwinswelose.com.
The Biden campaign also bought keepamericagreat.com, after Trump tried to use the slogan along with his "Make America Great Again" motto. The site highlights 12 of Trump’s alleged “promises made, promises broken.”
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