For years Qinbin Chen made a living thanks to Walmart. How?

By laundering $7 million in fraudulently obtained gift cards through its stores.

Walmart knew fraud was happening all over the US. It promised two state AGs to stop it. It didn't. Our deep dive:
propublica.org/article/walmar… We found that Walmart has long been a facilitator of fraud on a mass scale. The company has resisted tougher enforcement, broken promises to regulators and skimped on employee training. Over 10 years, more than $1 billion was stolen from victims and routed through its stores.

NEW: Last fall a DOJ attorney told a jury about a fraud ring involving hundreds of victims, 1000s of gift cards & criminals in the U.S. & China.

He gave it a simple name: “The Walmart scheme”

Here’s how Walmart has long facilitated fraud on a mass scale: propublica.org/article/walmar… Over 10 years, more than $1 billion was stolen from Americans and routed through Walmart stores. Romance scams, IRS scams, anti-virus scams – people got tricked by global fraudsters. Time and again, victims were sent to Walmart.

Kay Jenkins, a Miami realtor/model, was losing income because her Insta kept getting banned. She paid someone she thought was a Meta employee $8,000 for reactivation.

But like so many other influencers, she got conned by the notorious Instascammer, OBN: propublica.org/article/instag… We spoke to people with over 45 million total Insta followers who were targeted by OBN. They say Meta failed to help, or to take OBN seriously. At least one person is suing. Others hired lawyers. But OBN continued to run wild, mocking Meta and police as he banned and scammed.

NEW investigation & 🧵: Google runs the world’s biggest ad network, but it conceals most of the publishers it works with and where it places billions of ad $$$. We cracked open one of the world's most lucrative black boxes and found piracy, porn, & fraud: propublica.org/article/google… The Google Display Network places ads on millions of websites and apps in more than 200 countries. It works with huge publishers, solo bloggers, game apps etc. and earned Google $31 billion in 2021. Which sites and apps does Google work with and send $$$ to? Sorry, it’s a secret.

New investigation & 🧵: Google's ad business is funneling revenue to some of the web’s most prolific purveyors of health, election & climate disinfo in Europe, Latin America & Africa.

We scanned more than 13k articles from 1000s of sites in 6+ languages: propublica.org/article/google… Google placed ads on a site in Bosnia and Herzegovina for months after the U.S. government sanctioned it, calling it the “personal media station” of a major Bosnian Serb separatist politician. Here’s a Guess ad on a false story on the site claiming Serbia had a cure for COVID-19

Meet Goody. He sells jewelry in Miami. He also had musician profiles on Spotify/Apple/Google & articles about his songs. His is one of 100s of fake musician personas created to get verified on Instagram/FB.

Inside a million-dollar fake musician scheme: propublica.org/article/instag… Our investigation uncovered what’s likely the largest Instagram verification scheme. @biancafortis & I found crypto bros, OnlyFans models, a cannabis co., surgeon, reality TV stars & others were turned into fake musicians as part of an elaborate scheme. propublica.org/article/instag…

NEW: Google was sharing user data with a sanctioned state-owned Russian ad company until we alerted Google last wk. The shared data may have included sensitive location info and mobile IDs of people in Ukraine. Based on research by @kfranasz. Story & 🧵 propublica.org/article/google… @kfranasz RuTarget (also known as Segmento) is owned by Sberbank, a Russian state bank the Treasury described as “uniquely important” to the country’s economy when it imposed sanctions. RuTarget helps brands and agencies buy ads, and has been publicly listed as a Google partner.

NEW: For roughly 20 years, Google said it wouldn’t accept gun ads. But before and after mass shootings in NY and Texas, millions of ads from some of the country’s largest firearms makers flowed through Google’s ad systems. Story &🧵: propublica.org/article/google… Ads for pistols and rifles loaded on websites like The Denver Post, Playbuzz, Britannica, Merriam-Webster, and recipe sites. They were placed on Baby Games, amid brightly colored games for children, and on a parenting article about “How to Handle Teen Drama.”

NEW: Over a dozen Russian-language videos spreading on social media claim to debunk Ukrainian disinfo.

But they’re actually part of a disturbing campaign that spreads disinformation by disguising it as fact-checking.

A story & 🧵on debunks-as-disinfo: propublica.org/article/in-the… Here’s a viral tweet with a video claiming to expose Ukrainian disinfo that had mislabeled a military vehicle as Russian. The video also spread widely on Telegram. But it’s nearly impossible to find an example of the supposed Ukrainian fake being shared anywhere.

Our new ProPublica/Wash Post investigation reveals public Facebook groups swelled with at least 650,000 posts attacking the legitimacy of Joe Biden’s victory between Election Day and Jan. 6, with many calling for executions or other political violence. 🧵
propublica.org/article/facebo… Through interviews, data & internal docs, we reveal how FB/Meta relaxed its oversight of groups after election day, and belatedly rushed to try and police them once the Capitol attack was underway.

But by then, groups had become a hotbed of election misinfo and threats.

The Ozy Media meltdown has a lot of lessons. As the reporter who caught them buying junk traffic in 2017, I'm biased. But I see it as a perfect, cautionary illustration of Paid versus Earned media. So: a 🧵 on why Ozy failed as a paid media company — and why it matters. Definitions:

PAID media is advertising. Spend money to get an audience. In today's world that could be display ads, FB ads ppl click on, YouTube ads for your video.

EARNED media is when people choose to watch/read/listen to your content or the media chooses to cover you.

NEW: FB Marketplace has 1 billion users and is one of the company’s most promising sources of $$. But growth comes at a cost: our investigation reveals how FB fails to protect buyers and sellers from scam listings, fake accounts & violent crime. Thread... propublica.org/article/facebo… Internal documents, interviews with Marketplace workers, and law enforcement records show how the product has become a favorite of cybercriminals who come from around the world to find victims. There’s a staggering array of scams being perpetrated on Marketplace:

The WSJ's revelation of internal reports that showed the harm of Facebook's VIP profile program and the negative effect of Instagram on teens reveal a core truth about FB: people inside the company document and articulate the problems but they really struggle to affect change What we can read of these reports shows the quality of work done internally to try and quantify harm and issues. Yes, insiders are the only ones with access to data to do this work. But ppl at FB take these challenges on because they care and want to see the company do better

Exclusive: An internal report reveals how Facebook failed to prevent the "Stop the Steal" movement from using the platform to "spread conspiracy, and help incite the Capitol insurrection.” This new evidence contradicts public statements from Zuck/Sandberg: buzzfeednews.com/article/craigs… The report shows FB didn't know the "Stop the Steal" movement was building for months before Nov 3. On election day it exploded in a viral FB group that “normalized delegitimization and hate in a way that resulted in offline harm and harm to the norms underpinning democracy.”

BREAKING: David Brooks has resigned from his position at the Aspen Institute following our reporting — and new revelations — about conflicts of interest between the star NYT columnist and funders of a program he led for the think tank: buzzfeednews.com/article/craigs… Something new we discovered: On March 15 of last year Brooks appeared on Meet The Press and said: "I think people should get on Nextdoor, this sort of ‘Facebook for neighbors.’”

Left unsaid: Nextdoor, a social network for neighborhoods, had donated $25,000 to Weave, his project.

NEW: On @pbsnewshour David Brooks addressed our reporting about Weave, its funding & lack of disclosure. He made at least two false statements incl. claiming Facebook funding was publicly disclosed. It wasn’t until we reported it. I’ll explain, you watch: @pbsnewshour When asked about him taking funding from FB he says: "Yeah first we totally did disclose it because everything is public.”

False. Aspen’s 2018 funding report for Weave does not include FB: aspeninstitute.org/transparency/

He never mentioned FB funding in any columns or publicly.

NEW: NYT columnist David Brooks draws a second salary for leading an Aspen Institute project funded by Facebook, Jeff Bezos' dad, & others. He didn't disclose this to readers. The Times refused to say if the paper was aware of Brooks' second salary: buzzfeednews.com/article/craigs… Facebook gave $250,000 in 2018 to help fund Weave, Brooks' project at the Institute. A few months later Brooks began promoting Weave in the Times. He never disclosed the FB money, his salary, or other funders. Weave received just over 1.5 million in 2018, the latest $$ available.

Totally shocked by this, and thrilled for the @BuzzFeedNews team. huge thanks to @RMac18 for being an amazing reporting parter and to @JohnPaczkowski @mat and eveyone who worked on these stories with us.

https://twitter.com/PolkAwards/status/1364589786091180034

@BuzzFeedNews @RMac18 @JohnPaczkowski @mat you can tell how shocked I am by the many typos in my tweet

NEW w/ @RMac18: Mark Zuckerberg intervened to reduce penalties for Alex Jones and Infowars. His decision weakened FB's policies and prevented it from acting earlier against right wing groups like the Oath Keepers that stormed the Capitol, sources say: buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanma… This story dives deep into how important content moderation/enforcement decisions get made at FB. It reveals how Facebook's powerful policy team, led by Joel Kaplan, repeatedly went against the company's own experts to intervene on changes for fears of conservative backlash.

NEW w/ @rmac18: Sources and exclusive documents reveal how Facebook’s $80 ad juggernaut has enabled a global economy of dishonesty where scammers, hackers, and disinformation peddlers rip off and manipulate people around the world. buzzfeednews.com/article/craigs… FB has at times prioritized revenue over enforcement of policies designed to protect people who use its platforms. Example: A manager overseeing 45 ads contractors told them to ignore hacked accounts/violations as long as “Facebook gets paid” for ads via a valid payment method.

SCOOP: Facebok employees collected evidence showing preferential treatment of right wing figures. FB policy ppl removed misinfo strikes from Breitbart, PragerU, and Diamond & Silk, according to internal docs. And FB fired a key employee who gathered info: buzzfeednews.com/article/craigs… FB’s policy says publishers must contact a fact checker that gives the rating if they want to dispute it.

But the docs show that people such as VP of global public policy Joel Kaplan have intervened on behalf of conservatives like Charlie Kirk. In some cases checks were removed