Foreign content farms have been creating fake American news pages on Facebook for over eight years now, with their operations now being fueled by AI technology. These pages, with names like Proud American and American Story, generate clickbait content shared on Facebook that leads users to AI-generated articles full of advertisements, allowing the click farmers to earn revenue based on the number of clicks they receive. Despite their deceptive branding, these pages often attract millions of followers and engagement, outperforming legitimate news outlets like the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Post.
A recent Forbes review identified 67 Facebook pages promoting American news and culture that were actually operated from overseas locations like Macedonia, Canada, France, Morocco, Venezuela, and Vietnam. These click farms have a history of engaging in similar operations during the 2016 presidential election and in 2019, reaching millions of Americans with fake news articles. With the help of AI technology, these operations can now produce a vast amount of low-quality or outright fake news content, which can still break through and attract significant engagement on platforms like Facebook.
While Meta spokesperson Margarita Franklin stated that all 67 pages found in the review violated Meta’s rules on inauthentic behavior and were subsequently taken down, the issue of foreign content farms pretending to be American on social media remains prevalent. The use of AI technology by these click farmers has enabled them to easily produce content that appeals to American audiences, garnering significant engagement and potentially impacting public opinion. Efforts to mislead users about the origin of these pages continue, with some accounts still being misleading about their American identity.
The shifting focus of these America-themed pages away from hyper-partisan political content towards more sensationalistic and tabloid stories reflects the changing algorithms and rules of platforms like Facebook. These pages employ various engagement-boosting tactics, including posting memes featuring popular figures like Simon Cowell and sharing pet-related content to attract users. Despite Meta’s efforts to detect and remove such pages, the issue of inauthentic behavior on social media platforms remains a concern that may require regulatory intervention in the future.
The use of AI technology by click farmers to generate fake or low-quality news is a growing concern that poses challenges for platforms like Facebook and regulators. As foreign content farms continue to exploit the system for financial gain, the need for platforms to address the root cause of such behavior, such as algorithmic incentives for sensationalist content, is becoming more apparent. Without significant changes to the way content is promoted and incentivized on social media platforms, the proliferation of inauthentic pages and misleading information may persist, potentially impacting public discourse and opinion.
