Update on the investigation of "Fake News" generated by the teens in Veles before the US Presidential Election in 2016

Back in November-December 2016 I posted on this blog about the teens in Veles who were  posting misinformation/"clickbait" leading up to the 2016 US Presidential Election:

http://jainmacedonia.blogspot.com/2016/12/macedonia-fake-news-and-us-presidential.html


Here's an update on the investigative reporting by BuzzFeed:

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/american-conservatives-fake-news-macedonia-paris-wade-libert

American Conservatives Played A Secret Role In The Macedonian Fake News Boom Ahead Of 2016

An investigation reveals that the fake news sites that flourished in Macedonia in 2016 weren’t just the work of local teens — and that security agencies are probing possible connections to Russia.

 By Craig Silverman J. Lester Feder Saska Cvetkovska Aubrey Belford

Posted on July 18, 2018, at 12:24 p.m. ET

A joint investigation by BuzzFeed News and partners has uncovered new information that rewrites the story of the fake news boom in the Macedonian town of Veles.
A week before Election Day in 2016, BuzzFeed News revealed that young men and teens in Veles were running over a hundred websites that pumped out often false viral stories that supported Donald Trump.
Media outlets from around the world descended upon Veles to tell the story of how the so-called fake news teens — many of whom had a shaky understanding of English — made large sums of money from digital ads shown next to their misleading stories about US politics.
But after reviewing social media posts, government records, domain registry information, and archived versions of fake news sites, as well as interviewing key players, BuzzFeed News, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, and the Investigative Reporting Lab Macedonia can now reveal that Veles’ political news industry was not started spontaneously by apolitical teens.
Rather, it was launched by a well-known Macedonian media attorney, Trajche Arsov — who worked closely with two high-profile American partners for at least six months during a period that overlapped with Election Day.

Click the link for the full story
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/craigsilverman/american-conservatives-fake-news-macedonia-paris-wade-libert