American-themed fake news pages run by foreign click farmers, many of whom are based in Macedonia, have been operating on Facebook for over eight years. These pages use AI to generate clickbait content, such as articles with headlines like “Dedicated Firefighters Risk Their Lives To Save Others” and “A Father’s Heroism: The Tragic Story of Phil Dellegrazie And His Son Anthony,” which lead to websites filled with sexual advertisements. Despite posing as American pages, these click farmers profit from each click on their links, with American clicks being highly valuable in the advertising world.
A Forbes review identified 67 Facebook pages masquerading as champions of American news, culture, or identity, with over 9 million followers combined. Thirty-three of these pages were operated from Macedonia, while others were spread out across 23 different countries. These click farmers have a history on Facebook, with teenagers from Macedonia making tens of thousands of dollars in ad revenue during the 2016 presidential election. In 2019, similar operations reached nearly half of all American Facebook users, utilizing AI to produce a high volume of low-quality or fake news content.
The AI-generated content posted on these fake American-themed pages is resonating with Facebook users, garnering significant engagement. Some of the posts feature generic AI-generated imagery, such as bald eagles, camo soldiers, and the Statue of Liberty, to appeal to American sensibilities. Despite Meta’s efforts to remove these pages for violating rules on inauthentic behavior, click farmers continue to adapt to the platform’s changing algorithms and rules, using tactics like posting memes or images to boost engagement.
Various American patriotic pages also dabbled in political topics, including critical race theory and trans rights, though their overall focus shifted to more tabloid-style stories. Alongside changing content to align with Facebook’s algorithm, these pages employed other engagement-boosting techniques, such as posting cute animal content. While Facebook removed all the identified fake pages after being contacted by Forbes, the issue of accounts pretending to be American when they’re not remains prevalent on social media platforms like YouTube and TikTok.
AI is making it easier for click farmers to generate content and build audiences, with some offering advice on how to pretend to be American for increased revenue. The economic incentives for portraying a false nationality on social media platforms are clear, as advertisers pay more for Western audiences. As platforms grapple with the proliferation of inauthentic content, former Facebook data scientist Jeff Allen believes that addressing the underlying algorithmic incentives that reward sensationalist content is key to combating engagement farming.
