American media happy with fake news
Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2019 9:45 amFacebook, the American web platform that 45% of Americans get their news from, has announced it is perfectly happy to host mass advertising campaigns featuring lies and even doctored footage so long as the people posting them are paying cold hard cash for the right to do so:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-50249719
In October, Facebook's chief executive Mark Zuckerberg was questioned by US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez about the policy.
She asked whether she would be allowed to run ads on Facebook falsely claiming that Republican candidates had backed the "Green New Deal" environmental policy.
"I think probably," said Mr Zuckerberg.
Mr Hampton, who runs a digital media agency, was inspired to create exactly such an advertisement.
In the ad, footage of US senator Lindsey Graham was edited to look like he was speaking in support of the Green New Deal.
It was posted on the Facebook page for a political campaign group called The Really Online Lefty League (Troll).
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-50249719