SOMALI-ORIGIN CONGRESSWOMAN SMEARED BY U.S. RIGHT

We all know about the dangers of deep fakes. But more primitive forms of online deception are still catching people out as well. Something as simple as adding misleading subtitles to someone speaking in another language. That’s what happened to Somali-born Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who’s faced calls to be sacked, stripped of her US citizenship and deported as a result!

Addressing a crowd in her native tongue, she spoke about how Somalis in the US could petition their representatives to try and influence Washington’s policy on their homeland - in particular, over the question of the status of the breakaway republic of Somaliland. But someone deviously added subtitles to the speech that made out she was saying the Somali diaspora had the US government in its pocket, that the likes of Omar could dictate US foreign policy, and that she put Somalia and the Muslim faith before everything else - including, by implication, US interests.

That led to a barrage of performative outrage by prominent right-wingers, from Rob DeSantis to Marjorie Taylor Green. Omar has brushed off the smear - poking fun at the amateurish nature of the attempted hit-job translation (which used ‘Somalians’ rather than ‘Somalis’ to refer to her people - something no self-respecting Somali would do) - branding it a ‘manufactured controversy’ rooted in xenophobia and Islamophobia.

What do you think about the whole episode?