8 votes

French white supremacist network Suavelos is attracting traffic to their site by using deceptive Facebook pages that appear to support popular causes

1 comment

  1. balooga
    (edited )
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    Let me see if I understand the scenario in the headline: George, an animal lover, follows the "I like and I defend pets" page on Facebook. Fake news posts appear in George's feed, written in...

    Let me see if I understand the scenario in the headline:

    1. George, an animal lover, follows the "I like and I defend pets" page on Facebook.
    2. Fake news posts appear in George's feed, written in emotionally charged language that entices him to click.
    3. He clicks and is taken to a Suavelos site, which contains ads.
    4. (Bonus?) The site also links to a Suavelos ecommerce storefront that sells t-shirts with fascist slogans.

    Is that it? At what point does George, the animal lover who is not a white supremacist, fund white supremacists? Is he clicking the ads? Is he buying the t-shirts? I don't get it. Unless I'm missing something, nothing about his participation in this monetization scheme happens without his consent. There may be another conversation to be had about certain demographics' susceptibility to radicalization, but that's different from what this headline is describing.

    These days, as far as I'm concerned, no one should be surfing without a decent content blocker (I recommend uBlock Origin). Also, frankly, no one should be on Facebook either. Choose either option, or both, and this sort of thing will never be an issue for you.

    Edit: Changed "you" to "George" to make it clear I'm not talking about anyone in particular, in case I came across as too antagonistic.

    8 votes