Not understanding how websites work can get you into trouble. One enduring example of this is the Twitter “like,” which a stunning amount of people — including, for some reason, loads of politicians — do not realise is publicly visible to the rest of the internet.
Consider for a moment the case of Jarrod Golden, currently a Republican candidate for county auditor in Ohio’s most populous county, Franklin. For months, the Golden campaign’s official Twitter account idled away the hours by liking a whole bunch of pornography involving older women, technically known as “MILF” porn. Whoever was operating this account seems to have been unaware that this activity was visible to others. After getting called out for horniness earlier this week, Golden nuked the profile and later claimed that he had been the target of some sort of lustful “hacker.”
Yes, according to Golden’s campaign, he was definitely not the one who kept expressing excitement for “hot mum bods” dressed in tight lingerie, nor was he the one who would occasionally comment “wow” when a middle-aged lady would post a picture of her arse. No, that couldn’t have been him — must’ve been someone else!
The account’s dirty activity was originally pointed out by “The Rooster,” a Twitter user and Substack writer who covers Ohio politics: “The Franklin County Republican Party is running a very horny man for county auditor that doesn’t realise his likes are public,” they tweeted Wednesday. “Republican candidate in your area looking for MILFS now.”
The Franklin County Republican Party is running a very horny man for county auditor that doesn’t realize his likes are public. pic.twitter.com/QSGzxPJHea
— The Rooster (@rooster_ohio) October 25, 2022
Not long after The Rooster’s tweet went viral and Golden took his own account down, the political candidate tried to save face by using his campaign’s Facebook page to post an apology. In a post, Golden claimed he was sorry to anyone who had been offended by the “ridiculous and profane material that was shared or liked” by the account, and then proceeded to blame it all on a hacker. Not long afterward, Golden deleted his Facebook account too.
In a comment to The Columbus Dispatch, Josh Jaffe, chairman of the Franklin County Republican Party Central Committee, similarly blamed the account’s activities on a cybercriminal. “The account had been compromised,” he told the newspaper, further stating that Golden was “under the impression it [the account] had been deactivated months ago” and was not actively using it or even campaigning due to an unknown “medical issue.”
Despite these claims, Motherboard notes that Golden’s other account activity seems pretty consistent with a modern-day GOP political candidate: in addition to MILFs, the would-be politician’s other “likes” included posts praising former President Donald Trump, the recent Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, and calls to “abolish the FBI,” among other things.
Gizmodo could not find a contact for Golden’s campaign, as his social accounts have been de-activated and a link to a campaign website provided via Ballotpedia is dead. We reached out to the Franklin County Republican Party Central Committee and asked to be put in touch with the campaign. We will update this story if we hear back.