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Judd Legum Profile picture
@JuddLegum
Feb 24, 2022 • 13 tweets • 7 min read • Read on X
1. A far-right website that LAUNCHED 36 DAYS AGO is already more popular on Facebook than the Washington Post

The DC Enquirer has executed an audacious scheme to manipulate Facebook's algorithm and ad platform

And @Meta is letting them get away with it

popular.info/p/a-far-right-…
@Meta 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 Americans

popular.info/p/a-far-right-…
@Meta 3. Each time DC Enquirer publishes an article, all of these "independent" Facebook pages post the link in unison

Here is what happened when DC Enquirer published "Freedom Convoy on the Verge of Victory as Multiple Canadian Provinces Announce an End to Restrictions" on February 9 Image
@Meta 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

popular.info/p/a-far-right-… Image
5. Some of the pages in the DC Enquirer network are very large. "Red Wave," for example, has 650K+ followers. Many of the other pages have 100K+ followers.

How did a new website gain control of such large pages?

By manipulating the Facebook ad platform

popular.info/p/a-far-right-…
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!

popular.info/p/a-far-right-… ImageImage
7. Gill has done this by spending heavily on manipulative Facebook ads that trick users into believing they are participating in a poll or petition about removing Biden (or other Dems) from office but are actually just collecting followers for his page

popular.info/p/a-far-right-… Image
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 enforced

popular.info/p/a-far-right-… Image
9. These ads are manipulative but highly effective. They've allowed the DC Enquirer to build "Red Wave" from zero to 652,000 followers in 54 days.

They've had similar success with a bunch of other pages, including those just a few days old

popular.info/p/a-far-right-… Image
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 days

popular.info/p/a-far-right-…
11. Facebook was presented with all this information and declined to comment.

It's a $550B company, but it is unable or unwilling to enforce its own rules.

For updates and more accountability journalism, sign up for the newsletter

popular.info/subscribe
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:

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.

popular.info/p/a-far-right-…

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More from @JuddLegum

Judd Legum Profile picture
Dec 16
1. Mark Zuckerberg was once a champion for the undocumented, starting an entire org to push for a path to citizenship

"Mass deportation is absurd on its face and these policies are indefensible on human, economic, and political grounds"

Now Zuckerberg has embraced Trump
2. Trump campaigned on a pledge to carry out the "largest deportation effort in American history" starting on his first day.

He has promised to construct massive detention camps, and deploy the U.S. military

Last week, Zuckerberg directed Meta to donate $1 million to Trump's inaugural celebration
3. The donation came after Zuckerberg had "dinner with Trump on the patio of his private Mar-a-Lago club."

During his visit, Zuckerberg also met with Trump advisor Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump's child separation policy

popular.info/p/zuckerberg-o…
Read 9 tweets
Judd Legum Profile picture
Dec 11
1. Yesterday, Elon Musk — who for some reason is in charge of deciding what federal government programs are unnecessary — declared that the concept of homelessness is a "lie" and "propaganda."

Musk also suggested that virtually all unhoused people are "violent drug addicts" who cannot be helped.

Musk needs to educate himself. Starting with five basic facts.Image
2. FACT: 17% of unhoused people are children

A 2023 survey found 17 percent of unhoused people were children under the age of 18

That is 111,620 unhoused children

popular.info/p/5-facts-elon…
3. FACT: Tens of thousands of unhoused people are veterans

Veterans experience homelessness at a higher rate due to multiple factors.

A large number of veterans also live with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and struggle with substance abuse.
Read 8 tweets
Judd Legum Profile picture
Dec 9
1. Some people are saying Trump's pick for FBI Director, Kash Patel, is unqualified but did you know he's a published author of books on important legal topics? Image
2. In addition to being a legal genius, Patel is also a medical expert Image
3. More of Patel's deep experience... grifting Trump supporters

popular.info/p/kash-ing-in-…
Read 4 tweets
Judd Legum Profile picture
Dec 4
1. Media outlets have show little interest in an $18 million payment from Justin Sun, a Chinese national being prosecuted by the SEC for fraud, to President-elect Trump

It wasn't always this way

Consider how the NYT covered the alleged influence of foreign cash on then-candidate Hillary Clinton

🧵
2. In the lead-up to the 2016 election, there was extensive coverage of how foreign donations to the Clinton Foundation created conflicts of interest for Hillary Clinton

This was a legit topic but differed significantly from Sun's enrichment of Trump

popular.info/p/trump-v-clin…
3. Nearly all of the payments to the Clinton Foundation at issue occurred when Clinton was not in public office. The foreign money was donated to benefit the Clinton Foundation, a charity, and not Clinton personally. The Clinton Foundation disclosed its donors, even though it was not required.
Read 13 tweets
Judd Legum Profile picture
Dec 3
1. In April 2024, California raised the minimum wage for fast food chains to $20/hour

The industry claimed it would be devastating & require significant job cuts and prices increases

Here is what really happened: workers got a raise, prices went modestly, and the industry continued to add jobs
2. I can't put the link in the first post because Elon Musk suppresses links but here it is:

popular.info/p/what-really-…
3. If you don't want to have news like this filtered through an algorithm controlled by a right-wing billionaire, subscribe to my newsletter, Popular Information

No paywalls, no BS.

popular.info/subscribe
Read 4 tweets
Judd Legum Profile picture
Dec 2
1. Justin Sun, a Chinese national being prosecuted for fraud by the SEC, just sent Donald Trump $18 MILLION

Sun made the payment by purchasing tokens from a Trump-backed crypto company

THIS IS A MAJOR SCANDAL

Follow this thread for details
2. On November 25, Sun purchased $30 million in crypto tokens from World Liberty Financial, a new crypto venture backed by Trump.

Sun said his company, TRON, was committed to "making America great again. Image
3. World Liberty Financial planned to sell $300 million worth of crypto tokens, known as WLF, which would value the new company at $1.5 billion. But, before Sun's $30 million purchase, it appeared to be a bust, with only $22 million in tokens sold. Sun now owns more than 55% of purchased tokens.
Read 13 tweets

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