In 2019, Almost All of Facebook’s Top Christian Pages Were Run By Foreign Troll Farms
Posted: Thu Sep 30, 2021 2:34 pm
https://www.relevantmagazine.com/cultur ... oll-farms/
Bit more at the linkIn 2019, 19 of Facebook’s top 20 pages for American Christians were run by Eastern European troll farms overseas, internal documents leaked to MIT Technology Review reveal. (https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/0 ... -election/) The data shows the vast spread of Facebook misinformation is largely powered by coordinated efforts among foreign professionals working together to spread provocative content in the U.S.
These groups, based largely in Kosovo and Macedonia, have been particularly successful when it comes to targeting American Christians. Though they split their efforts among multiple pages, they were mostly operated by the same groups. Collectively, their Christian Facebook pages reach about 75 million users a month — an audience 20 times the size of the next largest Christian Facebook page.
For the most part, the people who saw and engaged with these posts didn’t actually “like” the pages they’re coming from. Facebook’s engagement-hungry algorithm simply shipped them what it “thought” they want to see. Internal studies revealed that divisive posts are more likely to reach a big audience, and troll farms use that to their advantage, spreading provocative misinformation that generates a bigger response to spread their online reach.
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It’s difficult to calculate the amount of influence such Facebook pages are exercising over American Christianity, but it certainly seems like it would be having some sort of impact. Christian pastors have congregations in their pews, at best, one morning a week. Facebook is in their pocket all day long, shaping their theology for its own ends. And, of course, there’s no telling how many Christian pastors themselves are engaging with bad faith Christian content from troll farms as well.