Ex-Student Is Angry Over Video With False Walz Allegation

A video of a former student making accusations against Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz appeared credible to some viewers. Posted Wednesday on X, it gave the man's name and biographical information, which was verifiable: Matthew Metro did attend Mankato West High School when Walz taught there. But when the real Matthew Metro watched the four-minute video, he didn't need to look up anything. "It's obviously not me: The teeth are different, the hair is different, the eyes are different, the nose is different," he said, the Washington Post reports. "I don't know where they're getting this from."

The man in the video claims that Walz sexually assaulted him in 1997, but there was nothing genuine about the content, either. Metro has never met Walz, much less had him for a teacher. The real Metro, who's 45 and lives in Hawaii, has made no such accusations of groping against the Democratic vice presidential nominee. Metro told the Post he's angry that his name and biographical information were used to make a lurid false accusation and that he may be tied to it permanently. "It's an invasion of my privacy and my personal life," he said. The video also had false information about Metro. AFP reports that experts say the video, shared by an account that promotes QAnon content, resembles the work of the Storm-1516 Russian propaganda group.

The Harris-Walz campaign looked into the video quickly and contacted Metro to say it was investigating and that it knew that Metro was a fake. X later put labels under the video showing that the content had been manipulated. But it was shared on Rumble, Truth Social. and Gettr, and by Donald Trump supporters, and multiple versions are still online. Archives show the video was viewed more than 5.4 million times. Expert analysis found no indication that generative AI was used to make it; it may be of a real person with manipulated audio. Metro said he's received a flood of messages from people who know him and realized the video was a hoax. One was the old friend who first sent it to him, along with the words, "I know this is fake." The Post has side-by-side videos here. (More Election 2024 stories.)