It’s 1776 all over again but this time it is a proud tribe with a long history that is disolving the bonds with the government which they feel is no longer representing them. In ancient times they used to control an empire spanning continents but steady invasions from the East reduced their territory to just a sliver of what it once was. You can see their flag and an outline of what remains of their current lands in the picture above this post.
The name of this once great empire and the people who live in it might surprise you…
…for it is Macedonia and the Macedonians. And this tiny Eastern-European country is not really declaring independence, we made that up. They’ve actually been independent since 1991 already so why should they do it again, right?
But did you know an increasing number of Facebook pages that post about Native American themes, issues and art are actually run from places like Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo or even Vietnam? It’s true! Web savvy entrepreneurs and kids looking to make some pocket money have built up dozens of sites and Facebook pages pretending they are Native Americans because a certain audience just loves to read about them. Often the people who run these sites are the same ones running fake news websites and they are using the same types of tricks: stolen content, dodgy ads, ever-changing domain names…
Facebook pulled down several pages pretending to represent Native Americans that push fake news. There’s more to go.
UPDATE: Since the publication of this article, all of the Facebook pages identified by Media Matters have been taken down. Facebook has removed multiple pages that pretended to represent Native Americans but were actually pushing fake news stories linked to websites seemingly from Kosovo. However, a Media Matters review found that the network runs much deeper.
We can only imagine how the real Native Americans must feel about this:
Really want to help? Read this excellent article on how to spot fake Native American pages on Facebook. Next time you see one of these articles on Facebook, don’t like or share it, report it! (But do feel free to like and share this particular article to teach others about the issue of Fake Native Americans…)
Leave a Reply