Thread by @JuddLegum

Monday, I reported on a huge network of Facebook pages that were run by Ukrainians and pushing pro-Trump propaganda.

A few hours later, Facebook took the entire network down

Now, I secured interviews w/the Ukrainians running the pages

It's pretty wild

popular.info/p/an-interview…

2. The entire network, which had the same reach as the NYT and WashPost combined, was run by 3 people!

One of them was a 13-year-old girl

Another was an elderly woman w/disabilities named Ludmila

Ludmila ran the "I Love America" page w/1.1M followers

popular.info/p/an-interview…

3. The motivation for the creation of this network was MONEY.

The guy running it said when Facebook shut it down, it cost him $1 million.

And he was just getting started. He estimated that it would eventually have made him $500K/month

popular.info/p/an-interview…

4. Financial opportunism is actually a more systemic threat to democracy than gov't psyops

There are only so many gov'ts with the resources & risk tolerance to interfere in a U.S. election

But there is an unlimited supply of people who want to make $

popular.info/p/an-interview…

5. Facebook and Google make it EASY to profit off of disinformation. They incentivize it.

Wednesday's newsletter is normally subscribers only but I made today's available to everyone because its important

If you value this work, please subscribe ➡️ popular.info/subscribe

6. Shout out to @sapitonmix, the Ukrainian journalist who made these interviews possible.

This dude stayed up until 2AM translating his interviews into English.

Not all heroes wear capes.

popular.info/p/an-interview…