Facebook reportedly might still have a misinformation problem on its hands.
Judd Legum reports for Popular Information that several Facebook pages managed by people in Ukraine are funneling large audiences to pro-Trump memes, including some that have been recycled since the 2016 Russian election interference campaign. The reach of this network of pages reportedly surpasses several major media outlets in the United States.
The Ukrainian pages usually draw their followers in by posting memes about dogs, Christianity, and American patriotism, before gradually cross-posting pro-Trump propaganda. For example, one page titled "I Love America" has around 1.1 million followers, was launched in March 2017, and gained traction thanks to its patriotic posts. But recently, Popular Information reports, it's been on the Trump bandwagon.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Join more than 350,000 subscribers and keep yourself informed with a selection of The Week’s most interesting, enlightening and entertaining stories - plus daily puzzles.
Latest Videos FromThe Week
Many of the posts include messages such as "Click Like, if you love Donald Trump as much as we do" or "God Bless Donald Trump and God bless America," but others are more misleading. One page, for example, posted a meme that falsely claims Hillary Clinton sold access to her email server to foreign governments. But a spokesperson for Facebook told Popular Information that the company doesn't believe these pages violate its policies.
Some people, like social media expert and New School professor David Carroll, find that troubling since it suggests Facebook is not sticking to its own promise to weed out these kinds of pages. But not everyone is panicking. Ben Nimmo, director of investigations at Grafika, believes the network of pages is too unsophisticated to pose any real risk, especially compared to government-backed campaigns. In the end, he said, it's probably just clickbait. Read more at Popular Information.
Update: Facebook spokesperson Joe Osborne said in a statement that the company plans to remove the pages for violating Facebook's spam and fake accounts policies and will continue to investigate for any further violations.
