How media outlets manipulate Facebook's algorithm and ad platform
Over the past decade, select media outlets and foreign entities have often manipulated Facebook’s algorithm and ad platform. Judd Legum, who runs Popular Information, an independent newsletter dedicated to accountability journalism did shed some light on this recently. Through his research, you can see how aggregated pieces of information are designed to push the buttons of the people and how it circulates so quickly on Facebook. It's important that all of us are more media literate and below is a great rundown of how all of this works and why Facebook needs to be held accountable for the misinformation and rage it spreads.
Popular Information newsletter creates change. Check out an overview of the newsletter’s impact over the last three years HERE. Thanks for all your hard work Judd!
2. The DC Enquirer controls a network of large Facebook pages that purport to be independent
They have names like Keep Texas Red ("We are an independent group of concerned Texans who want to help keep Texas from flipping blue") and Conservative Americanshttps://t.co/gzZ7AZX8P1
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) February 24, 2022
4. How do we know these posts are coordinated? The Facebook Pages in the DC Enquirer network publish these articles within seconds of each other with identical messages https://t.co/gzZ7AZFxXt pic.twitter.com/IKv9i8qowu
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) February 24, 2022
6. Let's take the Facebook page of DC Enquirer's founder, Brandon Gill.
Gill is not a particularly famous person.
He has a Twitter account with 55 followers.
He started his Facebook page on 11/6/21 and already has over 1,000,000 followers!https://t.co/gzZ7AZFxXt pic.twitter.com/TajlTM2N5l
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) February 24, 2022
8. According to the Facebook ad library, Facebook pages in the DC Enquirer network have spent between $243,000 and $298,000 on manipulative Facebook ads like these since November.
They appear to violate Facebook's spam policy but it's not being enforcedhttps://t.co/gzZ7AZX8P1 pic.twitter.com/nehglkpYUG
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) February 24, 2022
10. According to CrowdTangle, an analytics service owned by Facebook, links to the DC Enquirer had 2.19 million engagements over the last 10 days
The Washington Post, which employs 1000+ journalists, had 1.49 million engagements in the same 10 dayshttps://t.co/gzZ7AZFxXt
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) February 24, 2022
12. Facebook has also declined to comment on a similar scheme I exposed yesterday that is run by the Conservative Brief, another far-right website.
Conservative Brief has more engagement on Facebook than the New York Times
Details:https://t.co/3ILqrj5bBO
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) February 24, 2022
13. The two schemes are also connected. Brandon Gill, founder and editor of DC Enquirer, "provides strategic marketing direction for Conservative Brief."
Some of the Facebook pages are involved in both schemes. https://t.co/XLM91OIahz
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) February 24, 2022
Too Long Didn't Read Is A Big Problem
I have encountered many online arguments where people are arguing over a headline and if they actually read the story there would be nothing to argue about. I also see a lot of social media posts where it is obvious people commenting did not read the story.
I also have personally been in online arguments where I would share a story providing some background and the person would literally say TL:DR as you can see below.
This is frustrating in the modern era of social media driven news and debate. We can criticize the media for click bait all we want, but if we do not read the story, and only read comments, and the headline we are only part of the problem.
I also encountered this on another story about REI selling their new campus in Bellevue. The story said "Seattle area" and a bulk of the comments were based around people saying "everyone is leaving Seattle" due to the taxes and protests. In reality, the headquarters were in Bellevue and the move had nothing to do with taxes or protests. If you read the story you would see the headquarters are based in Bellevue east of Seattle.
Please go beyond the headline an read the full story. We will all be better of for it.
