AltNews probe into BJP’s propaganda factory: Website ads taken down by Meta

AltNews researcher Abhishek Kumar had done the research, which found that spending crores on Facebook Ads to push propaganda against non-BJP parties and leaders

Hyderabad: Social metaverse company Meta, which owns Facebook, has removed propaganda advertisements that were being posted by Facebook pages operated by the Bharatiya Janata Party.

This was in the wake of a research report published by fact-checking agency AltNews earlier this month.

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AltNews researcher Abhishek Kumar had done the research, which found that spending crores on Facebook Ads to push propaganda against non-BJP parties and leaders. The investigation into the BJP’s propaganda factory revealed that there was a network of 23 websites hosted on the same IP Address and linked Facebook pages working as pseudo-entities pushing propaganda ads by spending crores of money on Facebook, attacking non-BJP parties and leaders. The websites also include telanganaatmagouravam.com, and the Facebook page Telangana Atma Gouravam, which attacked the BRS government in Telangana and spread falsehood about developments in Telangana.

Following the report, Meta responded to AltNews, according to Abhishek, and removed the ads.

“We got a response from Meta. They have removed the ads by the BJP propaganda factory highlighted by us,” he said, adding that those ads now had a notice in the Meta Ad Library report saying “We took down this ad after it started running because the disclaimer doesn’t follow our Advertising Standards.”

Abhishek said following the investigation, the BJP propaganda websites hosted on the same IP address had gone down, but nine Facebook pages belonging to them were still running political ads with the website’s name in the disclaimer.

“We reported this to Meta on April 6 and we received a response today,” he said, adding that the pages were Telangana Atma Gouravam, Phir Ek Baar Modi Sarkar, Pappu Gappu, Distoy Farak Shivshahi Parat, MP Bole Phir BJP, Indian Compass, Modi Saathe Rajasthan, Mahathugbandhan and Nirmamata.

BIG WIN

We got a response from Meta. They have removed the ads by BJP propaganda factory highlighted by us.

Those ads now have a notice in Meta Ad Library report – “We took down this ad after it started running because the disclaimer doesn’t follow our Advertising Standards.” +

— Abhishek (@AbhishekSay) April 14, 2023

Earlier, AltNews found that all these websites had the same interface, homepage with three pictures, Facebook page link, disclaimer and privacy policy page. The websites included jharkhand2019.com; chormachayeshor.com; ghargharraghubar.com; thefrustratedbengali.com; phirekbaarmodisarkar.com; modisangnitish.com and to mention a few.

While ‘Thugs of Jharkhand’ was attacking Hemant Soren, JMM and Congress, ‘Chor Machaye Shor’ was attacking Bhupinder Hooda and the Congress. ‘The Frustrated Bengali’ was attacking Mamata Banerjee and the Trinamool Congress, while ‘Bhak Budbak’ targeted Tejashwi Yadav and the RJD.