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1. There's a dirty secret behind the extraordinary success of @benshapiro on Facebook

The Daily Wire has an undisclosed relationship with Facebook pages owned by Mad World News — a notorious site that exploits Facebook's algorithm w/racism & violence

popular.info/p/the-dirty-se…
@benshapiro 2. The Daily Wire is ridiculously successful on Facebook. In May, it received as much distribution on Facebook at the NYT! And more than the WashPost!

And it does this with a small staff that aggregates content

But this actually UNDERSTATES its success

popular.info/p/the-dirty-se…
@benshapiro 3. The Daily Wire published just 1,141 in May. The NYT published 15,587.

On a per article basis, The Daily Wire received more distribution on Facebook than any other publisher.

And it's not close.

popular.info/p/the-dirty-se…
@benshapiro 4. @benshapiro has partnered w/Mad World News to game Facebook. Each day five large pages controlled by Mad World News, some with 2M+ followers, posts at least 10 articles from The Daily Wire

These pages post the EXACT SAME CONTENT at the EXACT SAME TIME

popular.info/p/the-dirty-se…
5. Mad World News has built these pages by exploiting racial bias, religious bigotry, and violence.

They take old stories on incendiary topics, rewrite them, give them a new date, and let Facebook's algorithm do the rest.

popular.info/p/the-dirty-se…
6. Here's an example. On June 19, 2020, Mad World News wrote an article about a guy waiving a confederate flag on the side of the road who was threatened by a man with a gun.

NOT MENTIONED: This incident happened in 2015

popular.info/p/the-dirty-se…
7. The undisclosed relationship between @benshapiro and Mad World News appears to violate Facebook's rules. You are required to disclose when you are posting content for money.

Facebook also bans "artificially boost[ing] the popularity of content."

popular.info/p/the-dirty-se…
8. Facebook says it investigated & found no violation of its rules. This isn't the first time Facebook gave @benshapiro a pass

It raises questions about his relationship with Zuckerberg. According to a source that has spoken w/Shapiro, he speaks w/Zuck

popular.info/p/the-dirty-se…
9. If you are interested in this story, you'll probably like my newsletter, Popular Information.

It's devoted to independent accountability journalism.

Sign up here --> popular.info/subscribe
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