Some users even found a passing similarity to the Nova H1 Audio Earrings, which were created by German-based startup NOVA Products and introduced at the 2023 Consumer Electronics Show.
"The claims that Harris wore a pair of Nova H1 Audio earphones disguised as pearl earrings during her televised debate with former President Donald Trump quickly spread across social media following the pair’s closing statements," said Susan Schreiner, editor and technology analyst at C4 Trends.
Other users on social media have noted the similarity to the Double Pearl Hinged Earrings sold by Tiffany & Co. Harris has been spotted sporting the same style of earrings in at least one campaign video that has run on national TV.
According to Newsweek, the NOVA Products earpieces were launched in a Kickstarter campaign in May 2023 but have never been released.
"This is likely a huge reach this 2021 Kickstarter product had limited sales, they were again showcased at the 2023 CES but the product doesn't appear to have been successful," said technology industry analyst Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group.
"Only 323 people backed this project initially and the picture on the Kickstarter page looks different to what she wore," Enderle added. "To my eye—and apparently The Verge has confirmed this—what she is wearing is not this product, the mounting is very different."
It is also doubtful that an earring earpiece would deliver satisfactory results, Enderle added, noting he has tested similar products.
"Generally the person next to you or a microphone would pick up the sound, only bone-conducting headsets work relatively silently this far from the ear canal and this doesn't use that technology," he emphasized. "The earrings she was wearing look like pearl earrings with a real gold mount that is too small to conceal the tech used, even if it had been custom built for her, which is unlikely. Earbuds that are intended to be secret are always in the ear and very small so you don't see them at all and so they don't bleed noise, this would be the wrong technology for this use case."
Harris is just the latest candidate to be accused of wearing an earpiece. An unsubstantiated rumor began following a 2004 debate between then-President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry that Bush was wearing a hidden transmitter. The story gained enough traction that it was widely covered by the mainstream media—and debunked.
"This conspiracy theory is also similar to the claims made by Trump followers in one of the 2020 debates between Trump and President Biden, where they accused President Biden of wearing a hidden microphone," suggested Schreiner.
This one should have been even easier to debunk.
"Harris's signature style, involving the wearing of pearl necklaces and earrings, made it easy for fact-checkers to find images of the vice president wearing the same pair of earrings at other events," noted Schreiner. "Some fact-checkers are referencing high-resolution photographs of Harris delivering remarks to NCAA championship teams earlier this year. In these photos, she is wearing the same earrings as in the debate, and they can be clearly identified as not being the clip-on Nova H1 Audio Earrings."
Yet, such rumors have long circulated to undermine a candidate—especially when they've done better than expected in a debate. What is different today is how quickly social media allowed such a rumor to quickly gain traction.
"Theories like this are quick to develop and spread. Sometimes they develop because a person truly thinks something is true, or misinterprets a situation—which falls in line with mistaking earrings for headsets," explained Dr. Cliff Lampe, professor of information and associate dean for Academic Affairs in the School of Information at the University of Michigan.
"Other times, we will and do see adversarial states trying to spread bad information clearly for the purpose of sowing dissension," said Lampe. "One mistake people make about purposeful disinformation is that the goal is to convince people something is true or not. Often the goal is to get people to give up on the idea of truth. They throw their hands up because there is so much information flowing and depend on their identities and other heuristics to tell what is true. In research, we call that 'manufactured nihilism.'"
The fact that anyone is discussing the earrings instead of what the candidates had to sis it noteworthy, and for that social media is also responsible, as it has become a propagation channel for such misinformation.
"People see information, and share it which reinforces the content whether it's true or not," said Lampe. "Any media can be used to share bad information, but because there are no gatekeepers at all on social media it's particularly effective at it."
After the debate, the CEO of Icebach, Malte Iversen, shared a link on LinkedIn with the title, ‘She was fed the questions — Internet accuses Kamala Harris of using Nova H1 audio earrings as debate controversy erupts’ with his own commentary, stating: “We can neither confirm nor deny.” Iversen has since deleted the LinkedIn post, but not before Icebach decided to lean into the online rumor to generate hype for these audio earrings.
On the Icebach site a new ‘Special Edition for Presidential Debates — Soon Available to Everyone’ has appeared, along with the following paragraph.
“Following the presidential debate we have been contacted by numerous TV shows for interviews. After thorough discussions we have decided that we will grant one live interview to clarify the rumors and myths surrounding our wonderful products. Our chosen interview is Jimmy Fallon, a trusted Bavarian in heart. Please refrain from any interview requests if you are not Jimmy Fallon. Thank you!”
“The Nova H1 audio earrings are the first wireless earphones embedded in earrings. Made from quality freshwater pearls, each pair of Nova H1 audio earrings is truly unique and exquisite.”
“Like conventional earrings, the Nova H1 are placed on the earlobes and project the sound from inside the pearl straight into your ear canal. Thanks to our worldwide patented ‘Directional Sound Technology,’ the sound travels from the earlobe to the ear canal avoiding sound leakage and keeping your conversations and music private and secure. Two tiny high-end microphones are integrated into each earring providing the user with crystal clear phone calls and wind-noise cancellation.”
The Kickstarter advertises three hours of play time, with a portable charging case that allows them reach up to 20+ hours of music streaming before the case battery runs out. Each earring is said to weigh around 7g, with a button located on the back of the earring for input controls. Users can answer phone calls, play or skip songs, activate a digital assistant—all wire-free. Each audio earring contains one speaker and two mics for a total of two speakers and four mics in each set.
All has been quiet from these audio earrings since the successful 2021 Kickstarter, so perhaps no publicity is bad publicity in this case. While the CEO has deleted his LinkedIn post, we’ve preserved it here.
Following yesterday's Trump-Harris debate, there were claims on social media that Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris was wearing hidden earphones disguised as pearl earrings, a tech product that does not appear to be available for purchase.
The claims say that Harris was wearing a set of Nova H1 Audio Earrings, created by German startup NOVA Products, during the first presidential debate between the vice president and Donald Trump.
While video footage of the debate shows that Harris was wearing pearl earrings, several social-media users have pointed out their similarity to a pair of Double Pearl Hinged Earrings from Tiffany & Co.
An online search for the Nova H1 Audio Earrings shows that they do not currently appear to be on sale anywhere, and NOVA Products' website redirects to another company, Icebach Sound Solutions.
Additionally, backers on crowdfunding site Kickstarter have left messages from over a year ago asking for delivery status of their purchased H1 earrings that supposedly never materialized. NOVA Products' last login to Kickstarter was in May 2023.
Newsweek reached out to Icebach Sound Solutions via email for comment.
The claims Harris was wearing the devices come from social media accounts including @24ELECTIONS on X, formerly Twitter. The account, which has 1.3k followers, claimed: "She is seen wearing an earring developed by Nova Audio Earrings first seen at CES 2023. This earring has audio transmission capabilities and acts as a discreet earpiece."
Another X accounts, @JonnieKing, shared the claim in a post that has since been reshared 1.7k times across the social media platform.
A Reddit group, or subreddit, r/conspiracy, also shared this claim with a post titled "Interesting", a link to the Kickstarter page, and a side-by-side image of Kamala Harris and a product image of Nova H1.
This is not the first time conspiracy theories have circulated about hidden communication devices during presidential debates. Similar claims were made about Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign, specifically after a televised forum called the Commander-in-Chief Forum on September 7, 2016.
Some conservative websites and social-media users circulated images they said showed Clinton wearing an earpiece during this event. Fact-checking websites PolitiFact and Snopes examined and dismissed claims that a flesh-colored earpiece could be seen in Clinton's ear.
There was also a claim circulating during the 2020 presidential election campaign that President Joe Biden wore a hidden earpiece during a debate. This emerged before the first presidential debate between Biden and Donald Trump on September 29, 2020. Some conservative media figures alleged that the Democrat used a hidden earpiece to receive answers or coaching during the debate.
However, there was no evidence to support this. Biden's campaign strongly denied the claim, calling it "completely absurd." The Commission on Presidential Debates also stated that neither candidate was permitted to wear an earpiece during the debate.
The clip-on Nova H1 Audio Earrings, according to the startup's Kickstarter page, "are placed on the earlobes and project the sound from inside the pearl straight into your ear canal." It adds that "two tiny high-end microphones are integrated into each Earring providing the user with crystal clear phone calls and wind-noise cancellation."
Debuted at CES [Consumer Electronics Show] in Las Vegas, Nevada, in January 2023, these Bluetooth wearables have "directional sound" that allows for privacy. "Any audio output is absolutely private; so you are the only one hearing your conversations and music," says the product description on the Kickstarter page.
Update 9/11/24 10:50 a.m. ET: This story was updated with additional context and information.
Following last night’s debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, several users on X homed in on the vice president’s earrings — speculating that she was using them to get her talking points. Echoing a long history of political conspiracy theories, X users claimed she wore the Nova H1 Audio Earrings, which double as wireless earpieces. But anyone who looks closely can tell those aren’t what Harris was wearing.
Apart from the large pearls on both Harris’ earrings and the Nova H1 Audio Earrings, there are clear visual differences. The Nova H1 Audio Earrings feature a much thicker hoop, while Harris’ earrings very clearly have two thin loops that wrap around her earlobes. Harris appears to be wearing the Tiffany South Sea Pearl Earrings, as previously identified by the site What Kamala Wore. Susan Kelley, the journalist behind the style tracking blog, confirmed to The Verge that Harris has been spotted wearing these same Tiffany earrings for months.
The Harris campaign declined to comment, and Tiffany didn’t immediately return an email from The Verge.
It’s also not clear if the Nova H1 Audio Earrings ever made it into the hands of backers. Some people on the Kickstarter campaign from last year called it a “scam” and asked if they would ever get their money back. The earrings aren’t for sale on the company’s website, either. Icebach Sound Solutions, the company behind them, didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Despite the obvious differences, conspiracy theorists are leaning into the theory — and so is Icebach. The company updated its homepage with a graphic of the 2024 presidential election with a caption that says a “special edition” of the earrings for presidential debates (arguably the only edition, since you can’t order anything else) will soon be “available for everyone.” In a now-deleted post on LinkedIn, Icebach Sound Solutions CEO Malte Iversen also reposted a story about the claim, saying, “We can neither confirm nor deny.”
This is far from the first time that Republicans and right-wing conspiracy theorists have spread claims about Democrats wearing earpieces. In 2016, Hillary Clinton was accused of wearing a wire during her presidential debate performance, and Trump pushed similar claims against President Joe Biden in 2020. If Harris were wearing earring speakers, she probably would have found a slightly more stylish solution — but again, there’s absolutely no indication she did.
In case you somehow weren't aware, there was a presidential debate last night. The internet certainly was, and, as you might expect, there was controversy after controversy as Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump went head to head in a fiery vocal bout of ranting from one of the parties.
What you may have missed is the surprising claims that Vice President Harris was "cheating" during the debate by wearing an earpiece hidden in a pair of earrings.
Allegedly, the earrings in question are the Nova H1 Audio Earring which we first saw more than a year ago at CES 2023.
The controversy is somewhat similar to a claims reported during the 2020 presidential election when President Joe Biden was accused of wearing an ear piece during the first debate between Biden and Trump. Images taken during the debate purported to show a line in his shirt that could have been a wire.
As our friends at Laptop Mag, pointed out, that conspiracy theory appeared to be a dead end. Investigated by the Reuters Fact Check team , the rumors proved to be false.
The suspicious tech Ms. Harris is accused of wearing are the Nova H1 Audio Earrings.
At first glance, the earrings look like any pair of gold-backed pearl clip-on earrings, but are actually a set of Bluetooth earpieces that produce sound around your earlobes. The sound comes micro-chambers drilled into the pearl.
To be honest, we hadn't thought about these earrings since 2023, so it was surprising to see these smart earrings getting some traction during last night's presidential debate.
The company behind the H1 earrings is a fashion-forward German startup called Icebach Sound Solutions who initially used Kickstarter to get the Nova H1 off the ground.
As far as we can tell, the H1 earrings are the only product this company ever produced and they haven't introduced any new devices since CES 2023. Their website and social media accounts are pretty quiet as well with the most recent posting from any of their socials being from May of last year.
If anyone is still working on these earrings they don't seem to be active.
Tom's Guide reached out to Nova for comment and will update if they respond.
From what Tom's Guide could find, it sounds like the original company behind the Nova H1 went bankrupt and was purchased by Icebach Sound Solutions.
This is based on comments we saw in the Kickstarter page. We couldn't access an update that appears to explain situation because we aren't backers. That final post was on May 31, 2023.
It's unclear if anyone actually received a set of Nova H1 earrings. At this point, it seems like the company was simply a Kickstarter scam, an unfortunate dime-a-dozen reality on the crowdfunding platform.
"Our chosen interviewer is Jimmy Fallon, a trusted Bavarian in heart. Please refrain from any interview requests if you are not Jimmy Fallon. Thank you!" the website now reads.
The CEO Malte Iversen posted a, since deleted LinkedIn post, reposted a story on the about the claims saying, "We can neither confirm nor deny."
They seem to be leaning into the controversy which doesn't answer the question of whether or not they're actually producing these earrings. Of course, it's doubtful.
Our friends at Laptop Mag investigated the issue and determined that more than likely, Ms. Harris was not wearing the Nova H1 audio earrings during the presidential debate.
Vice President Harris is known to regularly wear pearl earrings at events. A suspicious X user shared a comparison image of the Nova earrings being worn by Tom's Guide's own Kate Kozuch versus the earrings worn by Ms. Harris.
A style tracking blog, What Kamala Wore, has previously seen the Tiffany earrings, and the writer Susan Kelley told The Verge that Harris has been seen wearing these earrings for months.
Rumors are circulating that Kamala Harris was wearing audio earrings and being fed lines.Isn't this against the debate rules? pic.twitter.com/3sRTvp20DWSeptember 11, 2024
As you can see in the images, the earrings worn by Ms. Harris and the Nova's sported by Kozuch aren't the same at all. The Nova's have a solid back, most likely where the battery and other electronics hides while Ms. Harris' earrings have kind of an open U-shaped hook around the pearl.
As Laptop Mag found, the ones worn by Ms. Harris are more than likely a set of 18K gold South Sea Pearl Earrings, formally available as part of the Tiffany Hardwear collection .
At $695 for the gold version of the Nova H1 earrings, they weren't exactly in our earrings price range but Tiffany earrings can start at $2,000.
After some cheeky responses on their website and from the CEO of Icebach, Tom's Guide received a late email from Managing Director Malte Iversen.
Regarding Vice President Kamala Harris, Iversen said, "We do not know whether Mrs. Harris wore one of our products. The resemblance is striking and while our product was not specifically developed for the use at presidential debates, it is nonetheless suited for it."
They remain...irreverent.
"To ensure a level playing field for both candidates, we are currently developing a male version and will soon be able to offer it to the Trump campaign. The choice of colour is a bit challenging though as orange does not go well with a lot of colours."
Iversen went on to claim that the company is out of stock of the Nova H1 earrings and that they are allegedly in preparing a lawsuit against an unnamed Chinese company for "breaching our patents." Supposedly, they will "ramp up operations" on the basis of the lawsuit.
