As Facebook plans to boost its groups into the news feeds of the users who don’t follow them and even in searches outside of Facebook, a network of pro-Trump public Facebook groups is promoting right-wing clickbait websites that contain misleading and sensational content.
Media Matters has found a network of at least five pro-Trump public Facebook groups -- Kayleigh McEnany Fan Club, Trump Daily Report, TRUMP TRAIN-MAGA Fan Club, Sarah Sanders Fox News Fans, and God Bless Trump -- which regularly promote right-wing clickbait including conspiracy theories, false claims about election fraud, and other misinformation. Key findings include:
In September, 3,400 posts were shared in these five groups, earning over 10.1 million interactions.
Kayleigh McEnany Fan Club, created in June 2020, is the newest group in the right-wing clickbait Facebook network but it is also the most active, with over 394,000 members and more than 2,000 posts in September alone.
Posts in Kayleigh McEnany Fan Club have earned significant engagement in recent news cycles, including those related to the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and discredited right-wing group Project Veritas’ false accusations of voter fraud.
At least half of the posts that contain links include an article from MAGAConservatives.com, Reedcooper.net, MediaRightNews.com, or ConservativePT.com. Many of these posts are shared by administrators and moderators for these pro-Trump groups.
On October 1, Facebook announced new features for its groups, which have emerged “as a key source of engagement and core part of the platform.” Most notably, Facebook said it would be changing the platform to make it easier for people to find new groups and their content, including showing “related discussions” in users’ news feeds or conversations from public groups outside of Facebook.
These features come as Facebook faces repeated criticism that it ignored warnings that news feed algorithms would contribute to political polarization as the platform struggles to reducemisinformationandextremism. Experts have also warned that Facebook’s recommendation algorithm for groups is a pipeline to more radical content -- something that might only be exacerbated by the recent changes. In fact, Facebook groups have been a breeding ground for conspiracy theories, fraudulent activity, harmfulmisinformation, and threats of violence. Notably, right-wing Facebook groups were used to organize armed vigilantes in Kenosha, Wisconsin, which led to the killing of two protesters during recent demonstrations against police brutality and racism.
As a Facebook engineer told The Verge: “That’s where the bubble generation begins. A user enters one group, and Facebook essentially pigeonholes them into a lifestyle that they can never really get out of.”
Media Matters has found a network of at least five pro-Trump public Facebook groups that promote right-wing clickbait and misinformation. These groups are: Kayleigh McEnany Fan Club, Trump Daily Report, TRUMP TRAIN-MAGA Fan Club, Sarah Sanders Fox News Fans, and God Bless Trump. The administrators and moderators of these groups, which have over 550,000 members in total, frequently use them to promote content from right-wing clickbait websites. Some of these administrators and moderators are also affiliated with the websites they promote.
Reed Cooper, who is an administrator or moderator for all five groups, posted an article from his website in all five public Facebook groups.
Using data from CrowdTangle, Media Matters found that over 3,400 posts were shared in these five groups in September, earning over 10.1 million interactions. Posts in these groups either link to right-wing media outlets, such as Fox News, Breitbart, and The Epoch Times, or are reposts from conservative figures, including Dan Scavino, Donald Trump Jr., and Sarah Huckabee Sanders. At least half of all posts that contain links include an article from one of the following four websites, which produce content that is misleading, sensational, and often promotes right-wing talking points and fearmongering:
In addition to these websites, other right-wing clickbait websites are regularly shared in at least one of the groups. For example, conservative commentator Frank Miele frequently postsarticles from his website, heartlanddiaryusa.com, in TRUMP TRAIN-MAGA Fan Club, and ConservativeBrief.com author Martin Walsh frequently linksto Conservative Brief articles in posts in God Bless Trump.
Here are the five pro-Trump public Facebook groups Media Matters has identified:
Total posts in September: 2,026 (accounts for 60% of all September posts in the five groups)
Posts with links: 46%
Posts with photos: 32%
Interactions earned: 8.4 million
The group's seven administrators and moderators share content from MediaRightNews.com, ConservativePT.com, MAGAConservatives.com, Reedcooper.net, and their affiliated Facebook pages:
The group's six administrators and moderators share content from MediaRightNews.com, ConservativePT.com, MAGAConservatives.com, Reedcooper.net, and some affiliated Facebook pages:
The group’s seven administrators and moderators share content from Reedcooper.net, MediaRightNews.com, MAGAConservatives.com, and affiliated Facebook pages:
In addition to these websites and pages, conservative commentator Frank Miele frequentlypostsarticles from his website, heartlanddiaryusa.com, and another group member frequentlyrepostsmemes from the Facebook page I Miss The America I Grew Up In.
The group's seven administrators and moderators share content from Reedcooper.net, MediaRightNews, MAGADoodle.com, and affiliated Facebook pages:
In addition to these websites and pages, Media Matters found nearly 100 posts made to the group in September linked to rightwingtribune.com. (The website’s owner, Dino Porrazzo, was a member of the group, but his Facebook account is no longer active and posts in Sarah Sanders Fox News Fans that link to rightwingtribune.com nolongerexist.)
The group’s six administrators and moderators share content from affiliated website Reedcooper.net and affiliated Facebook page God Bless Trump. Martin Walsh, who is an author for ConservativeBrief.com, another right-wing clickbait website, is also an administrator for the group and frequently posts articles from ConservativeBrief.com.
A case study in how Facebook groups spread right-wing misinformation: Kayleigh McEnany Fan Club
As part of this investigation, Media Matters reviewed posts in public Facebook groups following the death of Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the release of Project Veritas’ new video that falsely alleges voter fraud in Minnesota. We found that even though Kayleigh McEnany Fan Club was just created in June 2020, posts in that group have earned significant engagement in these news cycles.
Posts after the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg
In the days following Ginsburg's passing, there were over 3.3 million interactions earned on Facebook posts related to her in public groups. Seven of the top 10 posts about her death in all public Facebook groups were in Kayleigh McEnany Fan Club (though one post that was originally shared on September 21 has subsequently been removed). These posts earned at least 124,000 interactions on Facebook and were mostly about the Supreme Court nomination fight. During the time period studied (September 18-23), there were at least 50 total posts about her shared in the group, earning over 320,000 total interactions.
Posts about Project Veritas falsely alleging voter fraud
In its latest scheme, discredited group Project Veritas tried to falsely accuse supporters of Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) of being involved in voter fraud. Following Project Veritas’ video release, there were almost 97,000 interactions earned on posts that include terms related to Project Veritas’ video and allegations of voter fraud in public Facebook groups. Five of the top 10 posts about Project Veritas, its video, and supposed voter fraud were in Kayleigh McEnany Fan Club or Trump Daily Report.
Methodology
Using CrowdTangle, Media Matters compiled and reviewed data, including total interactions (reactions, comments, shares), of Facebook posts shared in any of the following public Facebook groups between September 1-30: Kayleigh McEnany Fan Club, Trump Daily Report, TRUMP TRAIN-MAGA Fan Club, Sarah Sanders Fox News Fans, or God Bless Trump.
We also compiled and reviewed the data, including total interactions (reactions, comments, and shares), of Facebook posts that mentioned one the following topics and were shared in a public Facebook group during a specified time frame:
Mentioned Ruth Bader Ginsburg or the U.S. Supreme Court between 7:30 p.m. EDT September 18 and 11:59 p.m. EDT September 23
Mentioned Project Veritas or its latest video in public Facebook groups between midnight September 27 and 11:59 p.m. EDT September 28
We defined posts that mentioned Ruth Bader Ginsburg or the U.S. Supreme Court as any post that had any of the following terms in the post’s message or in an included link, article headline, or article description: “ruth bader-ginsburg,” “ginsburg,” “ginsberg,” “ruth bader ginsburg,” “ruth bader ginsberg,” “bader-ginsburg,” “bader-ginsberg,” “bader ginsberg,” “bader ginsburg,” “justice ginsberg,” “justice ginsburg,” “justice ruth bader ginsberg,” “justice ruth bader ginsburg,” “RBG,” “SCOTUS,” “supreme court,” “#ruthbaderginsburg,” “#rbg,” or “#ruthbaderginsberg.”
We defined posts that mentioned Project Veritas or its latest video as any post that had any of the following terms in the post’s message or in an included link, article headline, or article description: “project veritas” or “ballot harvesting.”
