Sen. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) is sporting a neon green “Borat”-style mankini while walking alongside a bikini-clad Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) — she died earlier this year — and Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) in his signature hoodie and gym shorts.
And Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) is transposed over a meme of Leonardo DiCaprio laughing during a dinner scene in the 2012 film “Django Unchained.”
None of this might seem remarkable in this day and age. Except for one twist: the images appear on the politicians’ own social media.
RELATED ARTICLE: Erotic images vanish from Marjorie Taylor Greene’s Facebook page after Raw Story questions
Indeed, the official Facebook pages of more than a dozen members of Congress, presidential candidates and Executive Branch leaders reviewed by Raw Story feature hateful, violent or sexual content — even pornography, in some cases.
The prime culprits are tagged Facebook photos — some lighthearted, some mean-spirited, others overtly vile — that other Facebook users have created, but that the politicians’ page administrators have failed to block.
After being contacted by Raw Story, a handful of political leaders' Facebook settings changed or inappropriate content suddenly disappeared.
Whether the decision to leave tags open to the public is an intentional choice or an oversight is up for debate among political and social media experts. So is the question of whose responsibility it is to police the content — Facebook or the politicians’ social media managers.
Screen grab from Donald Trump's Facebook
“To me, it's not a mistake. I think at a certain point, you or the staffer behind it sees this content, and to not adjust the privacy settings, there seems to be intention there in my eyes,” said Dillon St. Bernard, a digital strategist who has worked on social media strategies for youth-led movements.
On the other hand, John Hart, a former communications director for late-Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) said “often, it's usually an oversight” when a politician doesn’t activate their social media privacy settings, but they should monitor the content posted on their social media.
“Members are responsible for choosing the medium on which other people post material,” said Hart, co-founder of the Conservative Coalition for Climate Solutions. “They shouldn't be held accountable for users' posts per se, but if they're facilitating the dissemination of that information, then they need to rethink their chosen medium."
Screen grab from President Joe Biden's Facebook
Facebook, and its parent company, Meta, did not respond to Raw Story’s request for comment.
From cartoons to porn: Presidential candidates on Facebook
As their parties’ presumptive nominees for the 2024 presidential election, President Joe Biden and Trump’s Facebook pages have been frequently targeted by Internet trolls.
Biden’s “politician” page, run by his Biden for President campaign, has its tagged photos settings turned off. But his official presidential Facebook page has its tags open to the world, attracting a range of posts from nearly naked people to violent images from the Israel-Hamas war.
Trump’s page, run by the Donald J. Trump for President 2024 campaign, features numerous inappropriate tagged photos and images, including frequent sexual content, such as some pornographic drawings, as well as Nazi imagery and depictions of drug use.
Neither Trump nor Biden responded to Raw Story’s request for comment.
Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley, who has ascended in the polls in recent weeks to compete with Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) for second place in the Republican primary, has her tagged photo settings turned off on the Facebook page run by her campaign.
DeSantis’ campaign page has tagged photos disabled, too, although his official governor page is open to public tags. As a result, his tagged photos page includes Nazi imagery and some violence toward Biden, along with an assortment of trolling, including an image of DeSantis photoshopped into a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader uniform.
Neither the governor’s office nor DeSantis responded to Raw Story’s request for comment.
Screen grab from Gov. Ron DeSantis' Facebook
Entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy has his Facebook tags open but — so far — has mostly evaded posts from Internet trolls.
Ramaswamy and Haley’s campaigns also did not respond to requests for comment.
Smut to memes: Members of Congress’ Facebooks
One of the biggest targets of Facebook trolling has been Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), whose public tagged photos have included derogatory, misogynistic — and even pornographic content.
Some erotic images on her page were taken down after a Raw Story investigation, but her tag settings remain open to the public and have received new tagged posts.
Her colleagues on the far-right, including Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO), have been targeted with inappropriate tags and heckling, too.
“Although it hasn't been utilized often, we've previously allowed Facebook users to tag us in photos as one option for constituents to keep us looped into issues they may be passionate about and want us to be aware of,” said Drew Sexton, campaign manager for Lauren Boebert for Congress, via email. “Unfortunately, it appears someone has recently maliciously abused that option. We're taking steps to balance our desire to continue hearing directly from constituents and supporters in a number of ways while preventing inappropriate material from being posted.”
After being notified by Raw Story of the inappropriate tagged photos, some images disappeared from Boebert’s campaign Facebook page, including one sexually explicit image.
“It's my understanding our digital team reported the inappropriate photo to Facebook, and it appears to be removed now,” Sexton said.
Screen grab from Rep. Matt Gaetz's Facebook
On the far left, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) faced some trolling on the tagged photos page on her official congressional Facebook, but her team apparently changed her privacy settings after being contacted by Raw Story, as now both her campaign and congressional Facebooks do not allow tagged photos.
House and Senate leadership, including Schumer, Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), House Majority Leader Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) and House Speaker Emerita Pelosi (D-CA), have all been targets of Internet trolls, as well, at least on their official congressional Facebook tagged photos pages. Since being contacted by Raw Story, Scalise's Facebook page no longer allows tagged photos.
House Minority Leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has mostly evaded unwanted tags on his official congressional Facebook despite the open tag settings; however, his campaign page included a tagged image referencing Adolf Hitler. His campaign removed the image once contacted by Raw Story, and now his campaign page no longer allows tagged photos.
House Speaker Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA) was formerly tagged in spam weight loss images on his official congressional Facebook page, but after being contacted by Raw Story, the images appear to be removed.
Raw Story also found the official campaign pages for Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Mike Lee (R-UT) and JD Vance (R-OH) to have their Facebook tags open to the public and tagged in inappropriate, offensive or spam content.
"In this case the ball is in the campaign's court," said Luke Schroeder, a spokesperson for Vance's congressional office, via text. Vance's official congressional Facebook page did not show inappropriate images.
No other congressional offices or campaigns responded to Raw Story’s requests for comment.
Screen grab from Sen. Bernie Sanders' Facebook
To moderate or not to moderate?
Leaving Facebook tags open to the public isn’t all bad, St. Bernard said.
“It's clear that there also are some supporters sprinkled into the trolling,” St. Bernard said. ”I think that's often the problem, and then also, the value-add with social media is that if you start moderating there is a way that you are taking away some of this support and the conversation.”
Concerns about limiting the right to freedom of speech could potentially influence a politician's decision to leave their Facebook tags open to the public, despite undesirable content.
“Politicians can disable Facebook tagging without impinging on people’s First Amendment rights,” said David Greene, civil liberties director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “They also can take steps to address harassment, and they can make viewpoint-neutral rules limiting profanity and sexual content. But they cannot engage in any kind of viewpoint discrimination — given how common it is for government officials and agencies to conduct official business through social media, the First Amendment rights of persons to access such accounts and participate in their interactive spaces are critical to modern civic engagement.”
The Electronic Frontier Foundation — whose mission is to “protect the rights of users to transmit and receive information online” — filed an amicus brief in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court that will try to answer whether it’s legal for public officials to block people on social media.
“When an official chooses to mix governmental and non-governmental conduct on an individual account, they must accept the First Amendment obligations that go with doing so,” the brief argues.
Adjusting Facebook privacy settings is ”pretty easy” and should prompt a conversation with a politician’s team about what content they want to show up on their public page, Hart said.
Ultimately, as politicians navigate the public nature of their jobs, some still just might not have figured out how to manage all the nuances of social media yet, Hart said.
“We're in this age of narcissistic exhibitionism in politics, and politi-tainment where members, too often, feel like their job is to be a stand-up comic, or be an entertainer, when they're really just hired to be a legislator,” Hart said. "There's an absurdity to what is considered normal politics these days. I don't think members broadly — Republican and Democrat — haven't figured out how to navigate the digital era."
