US locals fall victim to fake news

Disinformation drumming for Donald - 24th February 2020

It has emerged that a Facebook page purporting to be from North Carolina and dedicated to sharing local news is, in reality, a textbook case of a campaign of disinformation.

North Carolina features as a key battleground in the 2020 US elections. Despite already amassing in excess of 50,000 followers within a month, the site is also suspected to be peddling fake news.

Site administrators, claiming to be North Carolina State University students, stated that they were undertaking a social media project to investigate the speed at which news could be disseminated. They declared that "truth was not the goal," rallying firmly behind President Trump and stating that they were seeking his re-election.

The university denied any association with the site, claiming that no NC State students were involved in any way, and laying blame for the site squarely on Russian bots.

Labelled 'satire' to evade scrutiny by Facebook fact-checkers, the site pooled genuine but dated content from across the US, not just North Carolina, and curated racially divisive articles.

Disinformation expert Dr Claire Wardle stated, "it is a playbook of how to make disinformation work.”

Dr Wardle said she would be interested to know how it had gained so many followers so quickly but was nervous about saying it was a Russian account as this would be difficult to verify. She concluded by saying that this account “could have been created by an American who wants to cause trouble”.

Other sources attributed ownership to individuals based in Florida who claimed to provide "twisted news and satire".

Featuring among the stories shared on the site are one of a woman who had given birth to 18 babies in a single pregnancy and another about cases of coronavirus in the state.

Facebook claims to be "actively looking into" the page.