Thread by @TheBreakdownAB

There’s been quite a bit of furor over this post, so we would like to take a second to offer some clarification.

Do with it what you will.

/1

#abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli

https://twitter.com/thebreakdownab/status/1368295417885073410

First of all, like we said, we made the video. It is cropped to not have the person who shared it on February 8th doxxed.

That’s not how we roll.

But it is absolutely a real video of a real shared post on a real Facebook profile.

/2

So let’s get into what it could mean.

What’s alarming about this is that it appears to have been sponsored by the GOA for an ad campaign.

Which, would be a pretty big deal if accurate, because it would suggest that the single admin from Alberta Patriots is a GOA employee.

/3

But let’s explore two obvious options...

The post as we’ve presented it is real (it is, but let’s go down this path).

How would a post from Alberta Patriots get tagged with a promoted by GOA tag?

/4

To start with, it’s been pointed out that while the GOA is tagged in the post as the promoter, it doesn’t appear in the ad libraries.

How is that possible?

Simply put, someone tried to boost the post and it never actually got boosted.

/5

When someone decides to turn a post into an ad, a campaign is created that is then reviewed for approval by Facebook.

During that time, that promoted by tag is usually added on.

If the ad is rejected, the advertiser can then correct or delete the campaign.

/6

That means that a post can have that tag, but never grow up to become an actual ad.

When the rejected campaign is deleted, the tag goes away.

So looking at the post on the Alberta Patriots page now, no tag. But there could have been a window when there was.

/7

And how does a tag show up on a shared post now?

Let’s go to facebooks advertising policy for that answer...

/8

So, the easiest and most Occamy razor explanation is that the post was attempted to be boosted by someone who attributed the wrong account for it to be sponsored by.

But only admins can do that.

/9

But let’s say that we were duped.

Someone got us good by figuring out a way to make a post look exactly like it was sponsored and it wasn’t.

/10

We’ve seen the original post, as have more than a few others.

If it’s not real, it’s a staggeringly thorough manipulation of facebooks transparency features.

So, that’s not exactly a comforting thought either.

Probably more terrifying honestly.

At least to us.

/11

We don’t claim to know how this odd little post came to be. We don’t know the details.

What we do know, is that it is a real post that really presents the way we say it has.

That’s not something to be dismissed out of hand.

No matter how strategic you might be thinking.

/fin