LeBron James fired back at a digital advertising campaign for misunderstanding one of his tweets about voter repression, write on Twitter on Friday: “No one could use my name (if anyone else’s) to lie and deceive about the election.”
James covered a story in The Washington Post about a website called Protect My Vote which, according to the report, circulated ads on Facebook portraying mail-in-voting as unreliable.
One of the Facebook posts has a June tweet of James where he called polling stations in Kentucky a sign of “SYSTEMATIC RACISM and OPPRESSION.” The Facebook post misinterpreted the tweet, suggesting that James linked the closures to the expansion of mail-in-ballot paper ahead of this year’s general election.
A longtime James adviser, Adam Mendelsohn, told the Post the ads were “shameless” and “irresponsible”, saying lawyers were investigating the case. James also wrote on Twitter on Friday: “Not sure what we can do legally, but definitely try to figure it out!”
James has been vocal on the issue of voter oppression. In June, he helped start a non-profit organization called More Than a Vote, which seeks to incite both Black voters and expose voter oppression tactics, such as spreading misinformation through social media.
.
