Barking Mad

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Social Media groups, encouraged support for the British Political Parties in the build-up to the European elections has been found, the targets for fake news, and polarizing content with links to the far right, a Newsnight investigation.

Closed Facebook groups, the content of which can only be viewed by approved members, saw the users engage and share content to the extreme right and a potentially fake accounts, including some seemingly US and the Russian-oriented profiles.

While misinformation was more likely to Emerge in groups, the promotion of The Party , it was also to be released, and, to a lesser extent in the pro-groups Remain. The groups were not officially associated with a party.

the contributions in the groups often contain offensive language directed at MPs.

The Brexit-party Newsnight said: "We were not aware of and we can't Facebook all spend Our Time with the monitoring.

"If you have any Facebook group with our logo or infringe on our copyright without our permission, and behave suspiciously in any way, we are acting to close them, as we have done so far and re-do. "

As we have the track of Facebook groups? track

Newsnight worked with William dance, linguistics, and fake-news-expert from the University of Lancaster, campaigns of Disinformation . The content, the story and the administrators of the 30 largest and most actively closed pro - and anti-British EU exit Facebook groups were analyzed.

The administrators of closed groups, often vocational education and training new members questions, hold a view compatible with the rest of The Group .

the New Facebook rules, which was introduced after the allegations, The Company is allowed, the meddling in the elections in the whole world, are forced, The Public pages will be more transparent, who is leading them and who advertises on it. But as closed groups are private, they are less likely to be marked-to-Facebook-moderators for violations of the rules.

The "Brexit-Party - supporter" - group was switched off.

Newsnight investigation found that the largest group, called "Brexit Party - Fans" (it was not an official link to The Party ) was the latest incarnation of a page setup in January 2017, under the name of "liberals and Chartists for trump".

It was renamed several times in support of various causes, the "#MBGA News > > Make Britain Great Again-News" And Then "South-West of England #free Tommy" - a reference to the former English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson before taking on his most recent Brexit-themed name.

The Group was from a Facebook profile page called "Make Britain Great Again", with links to The Site MBGAnews. com, which, in turn, forwards to another Website, redpill factory. uk.

Red pill factory in California was recorded and described by critics as a mixture of partisan and false Stories on topics including the yellow vest movement, immigration and exit.

Since the Newsnight Website contacted, there are some content claims, including a story, to have the German authorities ordered prostitutes to have sex with migrants. There is not to support any evidence that the story was true.

On Facebook, the "Make Britain Great Again" - profile, common, fact-based Stories from Red pill factory, including One under the headline, "BANNED: Tommy Robinson -page DELETED From Facebook. "

, an independent website that rates the reliability of online content, describes how the Red pill works: "extreme bias, consistent promotion of propaganda/conspiracies, bad, or no, sourcing credible information, the complete lack of transparency and/or fake news. "

In response to our investigation, a writer for the Red pill factory said that they "believe the concept of" fake news", is very subjective.

"[We] dispute claims that the Website with fake news, but actually the articles were checked frequently in fact," the writer said.

she added: "people trolling with the website, the fake article or the presentation imprecise, anti-Islamic (in contrast to anti-terrorist), or racist articles were excluded from the submission of future articles" and said that an editor was due to a violation of these rules. Redpill factory has to run, the article strongly the yellow West movement of the late - sacked an employee because the promotion in yellow vests and criticize. "

"Brexit-Party - trailer" was shut down, before the European elections,

In response to the Sunday Times story, The Brexit Party said it would formally request recognition of Facebook, the groups were mined: "We have no interest in these people at all, absolutely. "

The Brexit-The Party saw the elections and online success is Possible, the Foreign Influence ?

in the meantime, spread other closed groups, links to Disinformation .

"We Support Brexit" closed group has about 3,900 members, included A Number of posts of a user will be displayed in Russian. The users of multiple shared links of News, a web site, the EU anti-Disinformation -East Stratcom Task Force has.

The image in connection with the user's profile, the person is not to be displayed, a former Russian Miss World , and in all probability, behind the account. The profile is entirely in Russian, and The Cover photo features Vladimir Putin .

Newsnight tried to contact the user, but you did not respond.

The user account and the News was part of a broader pattern of Disinformation or polarizing content with foreign links divided into pro-British EU exit closed Facebook groups, which was then shared and committed by other users.

and news punch, which was formerly known as your Newswire, a site that was also criticized by the EU-East-Stratcom Task Force for "publishing fake media Stories , the support of the Russian policy. "

news punch editor Sean Adl-Tabatabai told Newsnight: "We are a news organization published information from a variety of different sources on a variety of topics. Sometimes the BBC itself. You call us "fake news" defamatory and damaging to our reputation.

"We have no control over the members of The Public , you choose to our content on all platforms, including Facebook. At the moment, it is still your privilege to read and things to share, as long as you break The Law . "

The BBC has also contact to the local people tried to make the news, but has received no response.

contributions from a website called Brexit betrayal News were. together on A Number of closed groups of a Facebook user who seems to be in the United States

Mr-Dance estimates that the contributions of the targeted 50,000 people, belonging to the groups, such as "Brexit Protest" and "We Are The 17. 4 million".

As well as a list of the UK's EU-exit party, the members, The Site shared links to The One that was known by fringe and alt-right-wing groups in the United States.

The Brexit betrayal News domain was registered in Chicago in April 2019. When contacted, the confirmed on The Site , the user that the website was hosted in the United States, but refused to confirm whether you are from the USA.

What is a Stay of pro--groups?

Disinformation appeared less frequently in the pro-closed groups of Newsnight Remain analyzed. In the last year, groups with names like "Say NO to Brexit""!" and "work Against Brexit" occasionally contain links to polarizing Stories , some of which came from sites with false Stories .

Disinformation was less outlet widely used in the anti-British EU-groups

In other large closed groups, including "Stay Together" and "UK-citizens - Say-Yes 2 - Europe - Stay in the EU", the left led almost exclusively mainstream-news-networks.

Why is it important?

identified, Facebook-groups as a breeding ground for foreign interference. According to The Report , as early as 2014, the Russian user small Facebook groups that were designed to Set Up in order to important U.S. audience and look As If they were controlled by American activists.

Mr dance explained: "These groups can be Set Up and operated, with honest intentions, but then fall victim to people intentionally share false information and misleading news.

"Facebook groups can be manipulated to stir up political resentment and stoking social tensions. In the age of Social Media , it is easy and to achieve cost-effective, tens of thousands of people with distorted and false news," he said.

invective

Disinformation is not the only type of controversial content identified Newsnight investigation. Abuse "is aimed at politicians from all parties" was also widely used, said Mr. Dance.

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the uk's european elections 2019, european elections 2019, facebook, brexit party, fake news, social media

Source of news: bbc.com