‘Truth is not the goal.’ Facebook ‘news’ site admits to misleading 50,000 NC followers
Editor’s note: This story published on Monday, Feb. 17. On Tuesday, Feb. 18, Facebook took the North Carolina Breaking News page down. Also, on Tuesday, we published some ways you can spot — and not share — fake news stories.
College students, Alec Baldwin or a Russian bot?
A Facebook page called North Carolina Breaking News describes itself as “satire/parody” that wants to help President Donald Trump win re-election this fall.
The page, which has garnered more than 50,000 followers since it was created Jan. 24, posts a mix of real and fake news. Now it has some people — including police in one North Carolina city — trying to parse fact from fiction.
The administrators of the page introduced themselves as “Adrik” in a since-deleted post with a picture of Baldwin, the actor.
Meanwhile, some posts written in Russian have spurred talks of foreign bots and interference ahead of the November election.
On Monday, administrators of the group told McClatchy News they are students at N.C. State University in Raleigh who are conducting a “social media project to see how fast news will spread.” They did not provide their names.
“Truth is not the goal,” administrators said in a private Facebook message. “Getting Trump re-elected is the ultimate goal.”
A spokesperson from N.C. State told McClatchy News they had no knowledge of “any type of ‘social media project’” the page administrator cited. Facebook has since removed the page.
Winston-Salem police said incorrect stories have been shared on social media about its officers doing good deeds. The department didn’t name North Carolina Breaking News, but the Facebook page has shared stories about the Triad city.
“Some stories have circulated on social media recently that have been attributed to the Winston-Salem Police Department,” the city said in a Facebook post Monday. “We want to clear the record that these stories, while positive, actually involved other law enforcement agencies and are up to 3 years old.”
When police tried to contact the page administrator, the Winston-Salem Journal reported they “were met with Russian responses.”
One of the stories dates back to April 2016, when ABC News reported a police officer in Michigan bought a car seat for a man’s 3-year-old daughter after pulling him over.
North Carolina Breaking News posted a photo and details from the original story on Valentine’s Day but attributed it to the Winston-Salem Police Department.
The second links to a story from WFTV more than two years ago in Florida, when a police officer used his coat to keep a dog warm after he found it injured on the side of the road. North Carolina Breaking News posted a version of the same story on Feb. 15 and attributed it to the Winston-Salem Police Department.
It’s not the first time the Facebook page has shared false information about law enforcement.
Police in Greenville previously had to correct a North Carolina Breaking News post from Feb. 1 with thousands of shares claiming there was an attempted kidnapping at Walmart, McClatchy News reported. The incident actually occurred in Kentucky.
The page has shared fake news among legitimate stories published by reputable networks and newspapers — including McClatchy-owned publications such as The News & Observer and the Charlotte Observer.
It’s picked up at least three Charlotte Observer stories about a dog missing underground in Virginia, a woman who filmed someone punching her seat on a flight to North Carolina and Trump’s visit to the Daytona 500.
North Carolina Breaking News has also shared false reports about unconfirmed cases of coronavirus in North Carolina, a woman in Wilmington who gave birth to 18 babies in a single pregnancy and conspiracy theories involving a 6-year-old killed in South Carolina.
It has encouraged its followers to vote a straight Republican ticket to “help prevent Coronavirus.”
When asked why some of the posts are in Russian and how they expect followers to distinguish the truth from “satire,” as the page description suggests, the administrator responded by saying “truth is not the goal.”
The page has nearly 50,400 followers and 48,200 likes.
According to Facebook, users can report posts as “False News” by:
1. Clicking the “...” next to the post.
2. Selecting “Find Support or Repost Post.”
3. Clicking “False News.”
4. Hitting “Send.”
This story was originally published February 17, 2020 at 3:41 PM with the headline "‘Truth is not the goal.’ Facebook ‘news’ site admits to misleading 50,000 NC followers."
