That Bernie 2020 Facebook Page? Surprise, it’s run from Bulgaria!

This story is based on work by CounterAction, a DC based disinformation research company.

Facebook’s claims of transparency continue to wow the credulous and convince the media that our the overlords in Menlo Park are totally well meaning.

Fake news? They’re really sorry about that, even though no one could have seen that coming. Because they are so inherently good, they have put a crack team of machine learning savants on this problem. Nothing to see here.

However, if you scratch the surface even a little bit, you’ll find dozens of pages that are operated from abroad, claiming to be legitimate US sites. The only thing that has changed is that these pages don’t appear to be buying ads.

Big deal, right? Well, if 2016 teaches us anything — and apparently it has not — a page called “Support Elizabeth Warren” with over 100,000 followers is really run from Bulgaria shouldn’t be flagged. Nothing to see here!

Or take this page, “Bernie2020” which is run from…Algeria??

How about a “Impeach Trump” page run from the nation of Georgia with 50,000 loyal followers?

Those are sinister, but scratch a little deeper and the tragedy becomes comedy.

Take for example the following official pages for Republican members of congress. (You know, the guys who want to protect American jobs?). Mo Brooks thinks it’s just fine to outsource his page’s operation to Mexico.

Congressman Jeff Duncan is saving taxpayer dollars by paying Italians to run his page.

If you are waiting for the punchline….here you go. Donald Trump Junior runs his page from…Paraguay??? The Czech Republic?? Vietnam??

And while we are at it….what in the …. in the … well, what in the fuck is Judge Jeannine doing having her page run from Turkmenistan?

Yeah — this Turkmenistan, a country that has among the slowest, least reliable, most expensive internet in the world. But on the other hand, they have lots of dough for statues of their own dear leader….

Buckle up, friends.