A realistic-looking parody site featuring images of Biden touching women and children appears to be doing quite well on Google and other major search engines, particularly for the search “Joe Biden website.”
“Joe Biden has a good feel for the American people and knows exactly what they really want deep down,” reads JoeBiden.info, the parody site. “He’s happy to open up and reveal himself to voters and will give a pounding to anybody who gets in his way!"
When you Google "Biden 2020 website," the very first (non-ad) result is a parody site that…well, here: https://t.co/Bs6cjd7y1M #Biden2020 pic.twitter.com/5g9aHalYjJ
— Jonathan Walczak (@jonwalczak) April 26, 2019
The site also contains a number of videos where Biden touches women and children during official events and features quotes from the former vice-president such as “I promise you, the president has a big stick” and ”Folks, I can tell you I’ve known eight presidents, three of them intimately.”
The Biden campaign is having early difficulty with its digital operation, posing trouble for the 76-year-old as he competes in a field that has already proven to be savvy with new tools for online outreach and fundraising.
READ MORE: Joe Biden's Son Revealed to Fund China's 'Spy App' as His Father Derides Beijing
An online tracker maintained by the progressive digital advertising firm ACRONYM shows the Biden campaign has spent more than $360,000 on Google platforms, racking up more spending on the site than all the other candidates in the crowded field except Sen. Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana.
While his official campaign page is absent, Google does prominently display an official Biden advertisement for Biden-related searches. However, the web address “JoeBiden.org” forwards to a White House page titled “Trump Administration Accomplishments.”
“I would assume Biden’s campaign knows about it though by now,” the person wrote. “I get thousands of Biden supporters coming to the site every day who fail to realize that it is a parody — asking for volunteer information, donation information, suggestions on how to handle the [Anita Hill] situation, or criticizing his use of ‘All men are created equal’ — no joke.”
The parody site’s author told CNBC that the website was created before Biden had launched his campaign, during the controversy around the former vice president’s inappropriate behaviour. Biden has been under scrutiny after a number of women made allegations that he touched them in ways that made them feel uncomfortable. After those allegations surfaced, Biden pledged to be more respectful. The person suggested that these allegations resulted in his website ranking very well on Google and Bing.
The website author revealed they also have parody domains related to Sens. Sanders, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker, the person. But, they noted, the Biden parody has been the “most viral.” At the moment of writing this article, the website is still first on the Google search list for “Biden 2020” search phrases, including “Biden 2020 official website,” and apparently has been on top since at least 26 April.
