Fake news page gets big audience - 24th February 2020

There's a new Facebook page about local news in North Carolina. But the news isn't about the US state. It's false information on a fake news page.

North Carolina is an important state to win in the 2020 US elections. The page has been up for less than a month. It has already got over 50,000 followers. People are worried its news is not true.

The page says that it is run by students at North Carolina State University. It says the page is part of a social media project. The project is investigating how quickly news can travel. They don't care about the truth. They want President Trump to win the election.

The university has no knowledge of the students or the project. It thinks Russian bots are responsible for the page.

The page says it's a joke page, so Facebook doesn't check its posts. It contains real news stories but they are very old. They often aren't about North Carolina and some include racist content.

Dr Claire Wardle is a fake news expert. She wants to know how the page got so many followers so quickly.

Stories include one about a woman who had 18 babies and another about coronavirus in North Carolina. Some of these stories are totally untrue.

Facebook is now checking the page.