Macedonia's Fake News Factories | AJ+

Macedonia's Fake News Factories | AJ+

AJ+ explores how fake news impacted the 2016 U.S. election and made some young people very rich. We traveled to Macedonia to shed light on how fake news producers there are preparing to cash in on the next U.S. elections and how social media platforms like Facebook are responding to the threat.

Ahmed Shihab-Eldin investigates facial recognition at the border, meets men struggling with addiction at a gaming rehab, looks into the harassment women face online, interviews current and former Facebook employees and travels to a Macedonian fake news farm. When big tech breaks things and asks questions later, it affects everyone. AJ+ looked into what’s broken and how to fix it.

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50 Comments

  1. Randy on May 19, 2021 at 9:46 am

    The EX Facebook employee seem to have an ax to grind. He didn’t seem credible. It was like he was looking for his 15 minutes of fame.



  2. Sam Sam on May 19, 2021 at 9:46 am

    They helped on purpose.



  3. Ajatsätru Vidhata on May 19, 2021 at 9:48 am

    Hezbollah blasting hate speed on its official Twitter account is still active.
    What you call fake news is the manifestation of lies perpetuated by media itself so the anti-establishment believe in every contrarian opinion only because there is firm conviction that media is lying. Bad karma of western society has piled up against it and the day of judgement is fast approaching



  4. etwothec on May 19, 2021 at 9:49 am

    Ahmed is a frickin good lookin dude.



  5. Nathan Embry on May 19, 2021 at 9:49 am

    Fox/CNN/ABC/NBC/etc are the fake news. These people aren’t all over my tv



  6. sophie rose on May 19, 2021 at 9:50 am

    How come the Simpsons shows show what is going on in America and the world years before some of these things happen?



  7. roure on May 19, 2021 at 9:52 am

    did he really need subtitles?



  8. Maple Rafjet on May 19, 2021 at 9:53 am

    why believe them on the first place?



  9. Б.С.Н Wolf on May 19, 2021 at 9:55 am

    Im from macedonia everyone in macedonia tries to be cool and im like:you good dog?



  10. kokan mokan on May 19, 2021 at 9:56 am

    Im one of them i made a lot of money 💪💪💪



  11. Anthony West on May 19, 2021 at 9:56 am

    LOW LIVES!!



  12. Anna Duran on May 19, 2021 at 9:58 am

    You mean Republic of Macedonia!



  13. musicdance42 on May 19, 2021 at 9:59 am

    If u are an American citizen and dnt feel some type of way about this….something is truly wrong with u! This don’t make no damn sense! Wow 🤬



  14. HowToDoIT on May 19, 2021 at 10:01 am

    Neka slusne svetot za nas! Hahahahahah vaka ili taka



  15. Aaron Long on May 19, 2021 at 10:01 am

    the reporter looks like he is interrogating people



  16. Brackmard42 on May 19, 2021 at 10:02 am

    no wonder it comes from fyromians everything including their stolen history is fake



  17. Lucas Zhu on May 19, 2021 at 10:03 am

    Велес



  18. Heptagon on May 19, 2021 at 10:06 am

    In addition Trump himself steers audience away from legitimate news sources by labeling them fake, thus increasing the herd of followers of predatory news factories. After all this is the people mass that is likely to get him a second mandate.



  19. selimi a on May 19, 2021 at 10:08 am

    Is macedonia with NATO Europa and the West or will macedonia with russia



  20. Ea on May 19, 2021 at 10:09 am

    I’m from Macedonia but i would NEVER lie,cheat or create Fake News so i can lie the American people or in that case no one in the world just for monetary gain!!! if someone here DOES NOT HAVE MORALS, like those sc(u) mbags ,most of us have!!! and I’m truly ashamed of this!



  21. alex - on May 19, 2021 at 10:09 am

    The country was never officially called Macedonia.



  22. OmegaMan on May 19, 2021 at 10:11 am

    Is this an Al Jazeera channel?



  23. Македонија on May 19, 2021 at 10:11 am

    Makedonija



  24. Tim L on May 19, 2021 at 10:12 am

    Most news is partly or entirely fake. There is an intense competition for the hearts, minds, and eyeballs of the world’s population, and spin or outright lies can help win this competition. Let’s not pretend that news outlets are playing a game that they are not trying to win. Everyone is cheating at this game, and it would be naive to think otherwise. Major news outlets are controlled by cabals. These smaller fake news competitors are playing the same game on a smaller scale, and most of them are also controlled by cabals. Al Jazeera is run by one of these cabals, so it is no surprise that they would want to "expose" their smaller competitors.



  25. Apurva Dave on May 19, 2021 at 10:13 am

    Here is the biggest fake news perpatuated by every western country and the US government and every mainstream media in the US Iraq had nuclear weapons second Syria used chemical weapons. so facebook being only responsible for fake news is ludacris its only a scape goat.



  26. Lucas Zhu on May 19, 2021 at 10:14 am

    Just say Macedonia, not "The Republic of North Macedonia"



  27. TheGoose31 on May 19, 2021 at 10:15 am

    We are NOT north macedonia, we are Macedonia!! Please correct this immediately



  28. hana w. on May 19, 2021 at 10:15 am

    Life of *Boris*



  29. BolasDaGrk on May 19, 2021 at 10:19 am

    Protect the integrity of America… LOL That’s hilarious. Welcome to the real world, it’s always been fake news since the beginning of television.



  30. thenewmiLONNIEum on May 19, 2021 at 10:19 am

    Reminder: Hillary Clinton did not because of fake news. She lost because she is a horrible human being and our ah-t electoral system only allows for sh-t candidates.



  31. Monika Gj on May 19, 2021 at 10:20 am

    We can so we do it .. God bless Macedonia



  32. just a random muppet on May 19, 2021 at 10:20 am

    This is a horrible game



  33. Trevor Prime on May 19, 2021 at 10:21 am

    +AJ+ – $100, 0000 a month from Google Adsense? This is highly unlikely given that Google Adsense only pays about $1 for 1000 impressions of an Ad. For someone to get 100k in earnings per month they will have to get at least 1 Billion visits on their website per month.



  34. Sandi216 on May 19, 2021 at 10:23 am

    Full documentary on YouTube by PBS’ Frontline called "The Facebook Dilemma." It was a two-part investigation so there are parts One and Two on YouTube.



  35. Frosina Janevska on May 19, 2021 at 10:26 am

    God save Macedonia



  36. Azathoth Hastur on May 19, 2021 at 10:28 am

    how was hitlery even close? shes a megafalure liek her husabnd!! rememebr 80s deregualtion let to the NET and clinton got there whiel net went beserk!! he fuckied everything with overspending and regualtion including 2008 housing laws fanny freddy!! clinton caused 2008!



  37. Carmen Barnes on May 19, 2021 at 10:28 am

    The whole reporting looks fake with bad actors.



  38. Angel Dimovski on May 19, 2021 at 10:29 am

    THIS IS SO IRONICAL AMERICANS CRYING IN THE COMMENTS HOW EASTERN EUROPEAN COUNTRIES RIG THEIR ELECTIONS AND MAKE MONEY OFF OF IT WELL DEAR AMERICANS COME TO THE REAL WORLD YOU BRAG HOW SOME COUNTRIES RIG ELECTIONS THROUGH THE INTERNET I WONDER WHO DESTROYED LIBYA I WONDER WHO BACKED THE KILLING OF GADDAFI I WONDER WHO ATTACKED EVERY MIDDLE EASTERN COUNTRY FOR THEIR OIL AND CALLED IT’S PEOPLE TERRORISTS I WONDER WHO BOMBED SERBIA. NOW YALL MADE A HUGE DEAL ABOUT THIS, I WOULD LOVE TO HAVE THE PRIVILIGES OF PEOPLE WHO LIVE IN THE BIGGEST SUPERPOWER ON THE PLANET NOT CARING ABOUT WHAT HAPPENS OUTSIDE THE BORDERS.



  39. Dj Mario V velasco on May 19, 2021 at 10:30 am

    pretty ironic comming from a Qatari news source



  40. C_R_O_M__________ on May 19, 2021 at 10:31 am

    Fake news is just a product and YOU are the customer. You either “buy” or don’t!

    Cross check your sources, keep cool until truth surfaces and be responsible about what you put out there! Fake news can only be defeated at the individual level. That’s YOU!



  41. musti mon on May 19, 2021 at 10:31 am

    How is this ok ? Ban mazedonia from the world wide web



  42. Reverend scumlord on May 19, 2021 at 10:31 am

    Google needs to block adsense payments to parasite countries like Russia and Macedonia and fake news outlets like Shitebart, Milo Yanksoffkidsalot etc.



  43. boxlessthinking on May 19, 2021 at 10:34 am

    Sounds like a cia type ops. social engineering the world financiers are at it trying to make terrorist like attacks. on information dissemination. to use it in the mainstream news to demonize free speech and as and excuse to silence speech. next they’ll try to demonize comments. Proof financiers spend monies to trick us all. they now want us to think we need laws against free speech. when really we need laws to call this terrorism. the wep pages they used in this situtaion may not even be bad but they are tying them in with this huge scam. block incoming internet request from unconfirmed outside sources. simple as a pimple pop. cyber wall with a couple of closely monitored gates. for incoming and outgoing. a segregated network like AOL use to be. hmm.



  44. Lili on May 19, 2021 at 10:36 am

    Americans are blinded by their division and wanting to prove who’s better or right during elections, don’t see the distractions of other countries using the perfect tool to do it.



  45. The wolf of Swingthat on May 19, 2021 at 10:38 am

    so…………. its not russia?



  46. Dimitris Mythos on May 19, 2021 at 10:41 am

    Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) is the source of fake news and fake history. It’s good that people have realized this.
    Their ethnicity is fake and artificial, made official by Tito, thinking they are related to the ancient Macedonians who were Greek.



  47. CJ Ever on May 19, 2021 at 10:41 am

    Fakebook, Instakush, Tweetbait Socialfake.
    Turn off your phone once in a while.



  48. dark side on May 19, 2021 at 10:42 am

    Macedonia 🇲🇰❤



  49. ouldon aunt on May 19, 2021 at 10:42 am

    in this segment we see that Facebook was in fact, not only maximizing campaign funds from all sides, by telling each side that Facebook could help the different campaign teams win the 2016 election, but in fact on having promised Facebook his campaign would be spending 100 Million Dollars in adds, had Facebook personally assign a Facebook IT professional who Brad Parscale could quickly use as a kind of Facebook user Manual. in other interviews with ex Facebook employees tasked with finding Fraud and manipulation, Facebook higher ups ignored the concerns the teams were raising.



  50. Randy on May 19, 2021 at 10:43 am

    So it’s unethical for these people to do that. But this journalist finds it OK to hide identity of the troll himself? That doesn’t seem very ethical either. It’s just adding to the problem. The guy is in fear of having the United States finding out who he is. Bingo that’s a great idea