The biggest Black Lives Matter page on Facebook is fake
The biggest Black Lives Matter page on Facebook is fake
Facebook will now clearly label political ads
by Donie O'Sullivan April 9, 2018: 4:59 PM ET
For at least a year, the biggest page on Facebook
purporting to be part of the Black Lives Matter movement was a scam with ties
to a middle-aged white man in Australia, a review of the page and associated
accounts and websites conducted by CNN shows.
The page, titled simply "Black Lives Matter,"
had almost 700,000 followers on Facebook, more than twice as many as the
official Black Lives Matter page. It was tied to online fundraisers that
brought in at least $100,000 that supposedly went to Black Lives Matter causes
in the U.S. At least some of the money, however, was transferred to Australian
bank accounts, CNN has learned.
Fundraising campaigns associated with the Facebook page
were suspended by PayPal and Patreon after CNN contacted each of the companies
for comment. Donorbox and Classy had already removed the campaigns.
The discovery raises new questions about the integrity of
Facebook's platform and the content hosted there. In the run-up to Facebook CEO
Mark Zuckerberg's testimony before Congress this week, Facebook has announced
plans to make the people running large pages verify their identity and
location. But it's not clear that the change would affect this page: Facebook
has not said what information about page owners it will disclose to the public
-- and, presented with CNN's findings, Facebook initially said the page didn't
violate its "Community Standards."
Only after almost a week of emails and calls between CNN
and Facebook about this story did Facebook suspend the page, and then only
because it had suspended a user account that administrated the page.
The discovery also raises questions about Facebook's
commitment to change, and to policing its platform, even in the midst of its PR
offensive leading up to Zuckerberg's testimony. Not for the first time,
Facebook took action against a major bad actor on its site not on its own but
because journalists made inquiries.
Indeed, Facebook was told of concerns about the page some
time ago. Patrisse Cullors, a co-founder of the Black Lives Matter movement,
told CNN that Black Lives Matter had, suspecting the page was a scam, contacted
Facebook about removing it a few months ago.
Almost 700,000 users followed the page, which was not
disabled by Facebook until several days after CNN brought it to the company's
attention
The Facebook page was -- separate from Facebook's
suspension of it -- apparently taken down by a person who administrated the
page shortly after CNN contacted one of the Australian men who may be
associated with it. "Black Lives Matter" appears to have been set up
some time in 2016.
The people behind the page also ran a hugely popular
Facebook Group also titled "Black Lives Matter." With almost 40,000
members, it appears to be the biggest group on the platform professing to be
supporting Black Lives Matter. Facebook Groups are similar to traditional
discussion forums, and unlike pages, people normally need to request to join.
The page consistently linked to websites tied to Ian
Mackay, a National Union of Workers official in Australia. The union represents
thousands of workers across various industries.
A spokesperson for the National Union of Workers said
Tuesday that it has suspended Mackay and one other official while it
investigates the situation.
The union "is not involved in and has not authorized
any activities with reference to claims made in CNN's story," National
Secretary Tim Kennedy said in a statement.
Mackay has registered dozens of websites, many on issues
tied to black rights. In April 2015, Mackay registered blackpowerfist.com.
Mackay's name, email address, phone number and other details appeared in the
registration records for the site until July 2015, when the website enabled a
feature that allows site owners to hide their identities and contact
information.
The Facebook page continually drove traffic to websites
associated with blackpowerfist.com, which was eventually turned into a
Reddit-like discussion forum. One of the websites included
blacklivesmatter.media, for which Mackay is listed as the administrative and technical
contact in at least one archived internet record.
A few days after Mackay registered blackpowerfist.com, an
anonymous Facebook profile under the name "BP Parker" shared a link
to the website. This same profile was an administrator of the "Black Lives
Matter" Facebook page until the page was suspended, a Facebook
spokesperson has told CNN.
Another anonymous account, under the name "Steve
Parks," linked to another site first registered by Mackay -- again, just a
few days after internet records indicate he registered it.
As recently as last month, both BP Parker and Steve Parks
were listed as administrators on the Black Lives Matter Facebook group tied to
the Facebook page.
The people behind the websites and the Facebook page also
encouraged people to donate through various online fundraising platforms,
including Donorbox.
"Our mission is to raise awareness about racism,
bigotry, police brutality and hate crimes by exposing through social media
locally and internationally stories that mainstream media don't," a
message on the group's Donorbox page read.
"We have built a following through hard work,
dedication and the generosity of supporters like you that pitch in a what they
can to help us promote or share our page and also pay to boost the stories the
mainstream media try to suppress through paid ads," it added.
Facebook did not comment when asked if ads were purchased
to boost the page on its platform.
Another fundraiser removed by Donorbox, which the company
confirmed was run by the same people, billed itself as an "Education And
Training Portal Sponsorship Fund" that promised "online courses that
educate people about the struggle of civil rights leaders and activists."
Fundraisers also ran on PayPal, Patreon, and Classy.
A source familiar with some of the payments processed
said at least one of the accounts was tied to an Australian IP address and bank
account. At least one fundraising account was tied to Ian Mackay by name,
according to the source.
Another source also familiar with some of the payments
processed told CNN that the group had raised around $100,000 that they were
aware of. The source also said the fundraisers were linked to Australia.
Both sources spoke on the condition of anonymity because
their companies' policies prohibit the sharing of some information about
fundraisers.
The websites associated with the group are currently
registered using common features that keep the identity and contact information
for the people behind the website private.
CNN reached out to Mackay last month to ask about his
involvement with the "Black Lives Matter," Facebook page. He denied
running it. "I once bought the domain name only and sold it," he told
CNN when asked about a Black Lives Matter website that was once registered to
his name.
Within a few hours, the Facebook page had been
deactivated.
It wasn't the first time the Facebook page changed after
Mackay was asked about his involvement in it.
In December, after a freelance investigator, Jeremy
Massler, who was the first person to publicly note Mackay's apparent links to
the page, wrote a blog post about Mackay, the page was taken down for a brief
period before re-emerging.
Massler reached out to CNN about the Facebook page
following CNN's reporting on fake Black Lives Matter pages run by a Russian
government-linked troll group. Massler pointed CNN to the internet records for
websites linked to by the page.
After an investigation of its own, CNN presented its
findings to Facebook last week. Despite CNN outlining the page's links to fundraising
accounts that had by then been suspended on other platforms, Facebook initially
said its investigation into the page "didn't show anything that violated
our Community Standards."
On Monday morning, Facebook disabled the BP Parker
profile for violating its community standards. The company disabled the page as
a result, a spokesperson told CNN.
The campaign's accounts on Donorbox, PayPal, Classy, and
Patreon have all been suspended.
Donorbox told CNN in an email, "This is an
organization that we banned months ago. They signed up as the operator of a
popular FB page and a BLM social news platform."
"We banned the account after a couple of donors
complained that they thought they donated to the grassroots organization."
The company added that most of the donations came from
people clicking links on Facebook and on websites run by the people behind the
campaign.
One of the Donorbox campaigns that was active as recently
as February of this year included an email address for Black Lives Matter Memphis.
P. Moses, a spokesperson for Black Lives Matter Memphis, said her group had
nothing to do with the fundraiser. Donorbox removed the campaign, the company
told CNN.
Patreon and PayPal suspended the accounts after CNN asked
the companies about them. Classy had already suspended the account on its
platform as it didn't make it through its approval process.
PayPal and Donorbox would not specify how much money was
raised using their platforms. Patreon said only $194 was raised through their
site.
Classy said that the campaign did not make it through its
final approval process and no money raised was transferred to the people behind
the campaign.
Mackay did not provide answers to multiple questions from
CNN about his apparent links to the scheme. "My domain name buying and
selling is a personal hobby," he told CNN.
He declined multiple opportunities to clarify his role.
"What is the point in speaking to you given that you are going to run your
story either way," he wrote in one message to CNN.
Cullors said she found CNN's findings disturbing. She
said fake fundraisers diminish the real work the movement does. "We rely
on donors who believe in our work and our cause and that money will be used in
a way that is respectful," Cullors said.
"It's important to remember the movement was organic
and no organizations started the protests that spread across the country,"
DeRay Mckesson, a prominent black activist, told CNN. "The consequences of
that is it hasn't been easy to think about authenticity in the digital
space."
-- Carly Walsh contributed to this report.
CNNMoney (New York) First published April 9, 2018: 4:59
PM ET
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