Just days before the European elections, Facebook shut down 23 pages spreading politically motivated fake news. Half of them supported Lega and the Movimento 5 Stelle.
Facebook has shut down 23 Italian pages with a combined total of approximately 2.5 million fans that were sharing false news, hoaxes, hate messages targeting migrants and Jewish people, or had changed their names in order to become channels for distributing politically motivated content. On the eve of the European elections on 26 May, the measure was taken following an investigation by Avaaz, a non-governmental organisation that defends citizens' rights. More than half of these pages, which over the previous three months had generated more than 2.44 million interactions, were in support of Lega and the Movimento 5 Stelle.
In particular, the most active page was Vogliamo il Movimento 5 stelle al governo, originally called "Bombe sexy", with nearly 130,000 followers. Among the various pieces of fake news it had spread, it had incorrectly attributed to the writer Roberto Saviano the quote: "Honestly, I'd rather save refugees and my clandestine brothers than help some snivelling, spoilt Italian earthquake victim." Its administrators had also published a photograph of former Prime Minister Matteo Renzi alongside Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, claiming that the two had reached an agreement "to censor the internet."
The most active page in support of Lega was Lega Salvini premier Santa Teresa di Riva, previously known as the association of a group of farmers from Messina. A video had been shared on the profile that has now amassed ten million views and shows migrants destroying a Carabinieri vehicle — in reality, it is a scene from a film.
Among the other pages shut down by Facebook is I valori della vita which, with more than 1.5 million followers, presented itself as a generic lifestyle page, but was part of a network that reposted content from the click-baiting website leggilo.org multiple times a day.
"All of this is yet further proof that networks exist that share false information with the aim of fuelling hatred and division, right ahead of the European elections," said Christoph Schott, Avaaz's campaign director. "Facebook has done a good job of shutting down these pages, but the fact that a multi-billion-dollar company has to rely on a grassroots-funded investigation to defend democracy in Europe speaks volumes. It must do more, and it must do so urgently": according to the NGO, there are at least another eighty pages that should be shut down. "We thank Avaaz for sharing their research so that we could investigate. We are committed to protecting the integrity of elections in the European Union and around the world," a spokesperson for Zuckerberg's company responded.
It would therefore appear that the climate on the eve of the 26 May vote is similar to that which preceded the 2016 American presidential election, when user engagement with "hoaxes" concerning the two candidates — Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump — had tripled.
As reported by the New York Times, EU analysts have revealed that a constellation of Russian or far-right websites and profiles are spreading false news in order to stoke discontent and distrust towards the centrist parties that have governed for decades. In Italy, for example, some extremist websites bear the same digital signatures as outlets close to the Kremlin.
Russia's goal would be to weaken Western institutions and "discredit democracy itself. They are working to destroy everything that was built after the Second World War," according to analyst Daniel Jones. It is undoubtedly a "good moment" to try, given the rise of populism within the European Union.
