US locals fall victim to fake news

News site says "truth not the goal" - 24th February 2020

A Facebook page that seemed to be sharing local news in North Carolina has been found to be a textbook example of a disinformation campaign.

North Carolina is a key battleground state in the 2020 US elections. The site has accumulated more than 50,000 followers in less than a month - while also raising suspicions it was peddling fake news.

Administrators of the page claimed to be students at the North Carolina State University, conducting a social-media project to see how fast news could be spread.

They said, "truth was not the goal," and that they were seeking "to get President Trump re-elected".

However, the university denied that this was the case and blamed Russian bots.

The page was labelled as 'satire' to evade Facebook fact-checkers. Despite using genuine content, the stories dated from many years ago and originated all over the US, not just North Carolina. It also contained stories that were racially divisive.

Disinformation expert Dr Claire Wardle says "I would be interested to know how it got so many followers so quickly but I would be nervous about saying it is a Russian account because it is difficult to verify. This could have been created by an American who wants to cause trouble."

Stories shared on the page included one on a woman who had given birth to 18 babies in a single pregnancy and another about cases of coronavirus in the state.

Facebook stated it was "actively looking into" the page.