Facebook has taken down a slew of "Native American" pages that were posting links to illegitimate news sites, Media Matters reports.
The social media giant took action after Media Matters highlighted eight pages with names like "Native Americans Proud" and "Pawnee Native Americans." The pages appear to be linked to fake news sites operating in Kosovo, a disputed territory in Europe.
But Media Matters has since identified 18 more fake "Native" pages. These ones bear names like "Strong Native" and "Spirit of Natives" and post links to the same illegitimate sites.
The pages tend to post stereotypical and vague images of Native and purported Native people. Despite the thin content, Media Matters found that the combined audience for the pages totals more than 3.8 million.
Facebook has come under fire for allowing the dissemination of fake articles and the creation of fake accounts and fake events on its platform. Some of the activity has been linked to attempts by actors in Russia to sow division in the United States,
WIRED reported.
Twitter has faced the same types of criticism. The social media site recently informed 1.4 million users that they engaged with Russian propaganda during the 2016 election,
Recode reported.
Read More on the Story:
Facebook pulled down several pages pretending to represent Native Americans that push fake news. There’s more to go.
(Media Matters February 2, 2018)
"Native American" Facebook pages that push fake news are actually run out of Kosovo
(Media Matters January 30, 2018)
Join the Conversation
