The fake page gained almost 700,000 followers
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Facebook
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Facebook’s biggest Black Lives Matter (BLM) page was reportedly a scam run by a middle-aged white man in Australia.
Ian MacKay, a senior official with Australia’s National Union of Workers (NUW), allegedly helped set up and run the page titled simply “Black Lives Matter”, according to CNN.
The page, which has now been removed by Facebook, garnered almost 700,000 followers – more than twice as many as the official BLM page.
The page was allegedly used to solicit up to $100,000 in donations intended for BLM causes in the US, at least some of which was directed to bank accounts registered in Australia.
Mr MacKay denied involvement when contacted by CNN.
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Tim Kennedy, NUW’s national secretary, said: “The NUW has launched an investigation into claims made by a CNN report, and has suspended the relevant officials pending the outcome of an investigation.
“The NUW is not involved in and has not authorised any activities with reference to claims made in CNN’s story.”
Fundraising campaigns associated with the Facebook page were suspended by companies including PayPal and Patreon, CNN reported, after they were contacted for comment.
A Facebook spokesperson told The Independent: “We investigated this situation as soon as it was brought to our attention, and disabled the page admin for maintaining multiple profiles on the platform.
“We continue to look into the situation, and will take the necessary action in line with our policies.”
MacKay allegedly helped set up the 700,000-strong Facebook page (Facebook/NUW)
Mr MacKay also allegedly ran a series of websites linked to black rights, including blacklivesnews.com, blackkillingsmatter.com and blackpowerfist.com. Domain records showed the latter was registered using Mr MacKay’s union email address in 2015.
Archive records on the site said it was created by Black Lives Matter to “share the news that mainstream media play down”, and that it was “not funded by any other BLM group, George Soros, Ford foundation or celebrity”.
The fake BLM page was only removed by Facebook after it disabled an account called “BP Parker”, an administrator of the page. CNN revealed the BP Parker profile had shared a link to the blackpowerfist website the day after it was registered.
How to stop Facebook from revealing everything about you
How to stop Facebook from revealing everything about you
1/9 Lock your profile down
If you haven’t done this already, do it now. In Settings, hit the Privacy tab. From here, you can control who gets to see your future posts and friends list. Choose from Public, Friends, Only Me and Custom in the dropdown menu.
2/9 Limit old posts
Annoyingly, changing this has no effect on who’s able to see your past Facebook posts. Instead, on the Privacy page, you have to click on Limit Past Posts, then select Limit Old Posts and finally hit Confirm on the pop-up.
3/9 Make yourself harder to find
You can stop completely random people from adding you by selecting Friends of Friends from the dropdown menu in the Who can send you friend requests? section of the Privacy page. It’s also worth limiting who can find your Facebook profile with your number and email address.
At the bottom of the page is the option to prevent search engines outside of Facebook from linking to your profile.
4/9 Control access to your Timeline
You can limit who gets to post things on your Timeline and who gets to see posts on your Timeline too. In Settings, go to Timeline and Tagging and edit the sections you want to lock down.
5/9 Block people
When you block someone, they won’t be able to see things you post on your Timeline, tag you, invite you to events or groups, start conversations with you or add you as a friend. To do it, go to Settings and Blocking. Annoyingly, you have to block people on Messenger separately.
You can also add friends to your Restricted list here, which means they’ll still be friends with you but will only be able to see your public posts and things you share on a mutual friend's Timeline.
6/9 Review tags
One of Facebook’s handiest privacy features is the ability to review posts you’re tagged in before they appear on your Timeline. They’ll still be visible on the News Feed while they’re fresh, but won’t be tied to your profile forever. In Timeline and Tagging, enable Timeline review controls.
7/9 Clean up your apps
You can view a list of all of the apps you’ve connected to your Facebook account by going to Settings and Apps. The list might be longer than you expected it to be. It’s worth tidying this up to ensure things you no longer use lose access to your personal information.
If you don’t want to log into websites and apps with your facebook account, scroll down and turn Platform off.
8/9 Change your ad preferences
You can view a list of everything Facebook thinks you’re into and tinker with your ad preferences by going to Settings and Adverts. A lot more information is displayed on the desktop site than the app, so we’d recommend doing this on a computer.
9/9 Download your data
Facebook lets you download all of the data it has on you, including the posts you’ve shared, your messages and photos, ads you’ve clicked on and even the IP addresses that are logged when you log in or out of the site. It’s a hell of a lot of information, which you should download to ensure you never over-share on the social network again.
1/9 Lock your profile down
If you haven’t done this already, do it now. In Settings, hit the Privacy tab. From here, you can control who gets to see your future posts and friends list. Choose from Public, Friends, Only Me and Custom in the dropdown menu.
2/9 Limit old posts
Annoyingly, changing this has no effect on who’s able to see your past Facebook posts. Instead, on the Privacy page, you have to click on Limit Past Posts, then select Limit Old Posts and finally hit Confirm on the pop-up.
3/9 Make yourself harder to find
You can stop completely random people from adding you by selecting Friends of Friends from the dropdown menu in the Who can send you friend requests? section of the Privacy page. It’s also worth limiting who can find your Facebook profile with your number and email address.
At the bottom of the page is the option to prevent search engines outside of Facebook from linking to your profile.
4/9 Control access to your Timeline
You can limit who gets to post things on your Timeline and who gets to see posts on your Timeline too. In Settings, go to Timeline and Tagging and edit the sections you want to lock down.
5/9 Block people
When you block someone, they won’t be able to see things you post on your Timeline, tag you, invite you to events or groups, start conversations with you or add you as a friend. To do it, go to Settings and Blocking. Annoyingly, you have to block people on Messenger separately.
You can also add friends to your Restricted list here, which means they’ll still be friends with you but will only be able to see your public posts and things you share on a mutual friend's Timeline.
6/9 Review tags
One of Facebook’s handiest privacy features is the ability to review posts you’re tagged in before they appear on your Timeline. They’ll still be visible on the News Feed while they’re fresh, but won’t be tied to your profile forever. In Timeline and Tagging, enable Timeline review controls.
7/9 Clean up your apps
You can view a list of all of the apps you’ve connected to your Facebook account by going to Settings and Apps. The list might be longer than you expected it to be. It’s worth tidying this up to ensure things you no longer use lose access to your personal information.
If you don’t want to log into websites and apps with your facebook account, scroll down and turn Platform off.
8/9 Change your ad preferences
You can view a list of everything Facebook thinks you’re into and tinker with your ad preferences by going to Settings and Adverts. A lot more information is displayed on the desktop site than the app, so we’d recommend doing this on a computer.
9/9 Download your data
Facebook lets you download all of the data it has on you, including the posts you’ve shared, your messages and photos, ads you’ve clicked on and even the IP addresses that are logged when you log in or out of the site. It’s a hell of a lot of information, which you should download to ensure you never over-share on the social network again.
The revelations come amid a public backlash against Facebook’s data sharing regulations, which has seen companies gain improper access to millions of users’ personal information.
Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg will tell Congress this week that addressing the data abuse scandal will “significantly impact” the company’s profitability.
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