Twitter Troll Steals Gay Couple's Picture for Pro-Pedophilia Tweets

An internet troll appropriated pictures of a gay couple and used them in tweets that make it appear they support pedophilia -- and some right-wing commentators were taken in by the scam.

Gay travel bloggers Karl Krause and Daan Colijn became aware of the phenomenon around Christmas, when some of their followers notified them about the tweets, NBC News reports.

"They were outraged emails," Krause told NBC. "They were saying: 'How can that be? You are not pro-pedophilia. I know that.'"

"It's frustrating to see someone misusing our image for political purposes -- basically supporting an argument against the LGBTQ community with our work," he added.

A photo of the two men kissing was used by a Twitter account under the handle @vaceyi, belonging to a man identified only as "Alex." One of his tweets said, "Pedophilia is a sexual orientation you bigots." He described himself as an ally of "Non-offending Minor Attracted Persons" and referred to his critics as "pedophobes." He also said he is bisexual and is dedicated to the resistance movement against Donald Trump.

A far-right website called The Federalist Papers took his tweets seriously and wrote an article on them, headlined "Resistance Member Says Pedophilia Is Sexual Orientation, Claims Bigotry." Curt Schilling, a retired Major League Baseball pitcher turned conservative pundit, and Jack Posobiec, a right-wing conspiracy theorist, also commented on them, tying homosexuality to pedophilia, although there is no correlation between the two.

"They are actually trying to argue that pedophiles are an 'oppressed minority,'" Posobiec tweeted. "Many warned this day would come." Posobiec is known for his embrace of the "Pizzagate" theory, which preposterously accuses Hillary Clinton of running a child sex trafficking ring from a Washington, D.C., pizza parlor. That theory led a man to fire an assault rifle inside the restaurant in 2016.

"Krause said he and his followers repeatedly reported the @vaceyi account using his identity to Twitter, which insisted he provide proof of his identity," NBC News reports. "The account later changed its profile picture to a stock photo of two black men kissing."

Twitter finally permanently suspended the @vaceyi account Thursday night after NBC News contacted the company. "This type of deliberate attempt to undermine and disrupt the health of the public conversation has absolutely no place on our service," a Twitter spokesperson said in an emailed statement to NBC. "Coordinated activity of this nature -- including running multiple accounts and adopting fake personae -- is a violation of the Twitter Rules. We are aggressively taking action pursuant with our policies." The rules also prohibit promotion of child exploitation.

GLAAD vice president of programs Zeke Stokes told the network that Twitter and other social media platforms need to respond more quickly to problems like this. "Social media platforms have the right and the responsibility to protect their products from being weaponized and their users from being targeted by those who wish to spread hate, misinformation and malicious rhetoric," Stokes said. "Anti-LGBTQ leaders have long tried to surface these debunked lies about LGBTQ people despite the fact that our culture knows these fear tactics are blatantly false."

Krause and Colijn said they'll continue blogging about LGBTQ-friendly travel destinations and standing up for their community. "We see our work as activism," Krause told NBC.