Facebook cracks down on 'fake news' sites, including far-left operation funded by dark money

Facebook unveiled a new policy “differentiating a straight news outlet from a political persuasion operation” on Tuesday that will help prevent operations like the far-left Courier Newsroom from driving one-sided messaging and provide transparency about who funds the operation.

“Facebook is rolling out a new policy that will prevent U.S. news publishers with ‘direct, meaningful ties’ to political groups from claiming the news exemption within its political ads authorization process, executives tell Axios,” wrote reporter Sara Fischer, who broke the news. “The biggest and most sophisticated example of this type of website is Courier Newsroom, which is backed by ACRONYM.”

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Facebook confirmed Axios' report and provided Fox News with the updated policy.

Last month, Fox News explored how Courier Newsroom, which is tied to a multibillion-dollar, left-wing dark money operation and strategically placed websites in key battleground states running "news stories" that often appear to be little more than Democratic Party talking points made to look like local news outlets.

The same operation also promotes its content on social media platforms and places expensive ads on Facebook, where it was categorized as a Media/News organization.

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Facebook will now ensure groups like Courier Newsroom are “held to the same standard as political entities” when it comes to advertising and will no longer be eligible to appear on the Facebook News tab.

“Facebook confirms what Americans for Public Trust has been reporting on for months -- Courier Newsroom is a fake news operation,” Americans for Public Trust outside counsel and former Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt told Fox News.

“This latest venture, led by liberal dark money operation Arabella Advisors, poses as a local news outlet yet pushes a partisan agenda --  both in its 'stories' and in the digital ads promoting the stories,” Laxalt said.

Courier Newsroom did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

"Identifying politically connected publishers is a new process for us, and we will learn and adapt as needed, while continuing to make ads on Facebook more transparent and protect the integrity of elections," Facebook wrote when announcing the changes.

Last month, Politico published a story about the Courier Newsroom headlined, “Newsroom or PAC? Liberal group muddies online information wars,” which detailed how the group “is blurring the lines between campaign advocacy and a newsroom.”

The Courier Newsroom has set up websites that appear to be local, small-town news organizations in major swing states such as Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, Florida, Virginia, North Carolina and Arizona, all complete with names such as “Up North News” and “The ‘Gander” to give them a local feel. Laxalt feels that Courier Newsroom intends to influence House races and push electoral votes to Democrats.

Facebook’s ad library indicates that Courier regularly places advertisements that appear to be news stories on the social media platform. The advertisements include stories pushing vote-by-mail, attacking President Trump’s coronavirus response and praising Democratic members of Congress.

“It was a deceptive and effective practice while it lasted. These new policy changes by Facebook and its tech rivals should help to reduce the distribution of these sites, or at least provide more transparency to users about who is really behind them,” Fischer wrote.

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Courier Newsroom bills itself as “a progressive media company owned by the nonprofit ACRONYM and other private investors." ACRONYM is a nonprofit dedicated to "advancing progressive causes through innovative communications, advertising and organizing programs."

The New Venture Fund gave ACRONYM $250,000 in 2018 and is one of a number of nonprofit groups controlled by Arabella Advisors, a Washington-based philanthropy company. Both Arabella and New Venture Fund were founded by Eric Kessler, who worked in President Bill Clinton’s administration.

An Arabella Advisors spokesperson provided Fox News with the following statement: “Arabella Advisors is a consulting business that supports philanthropy. Our clients include a variety of nonprofit organizations that hire Arabella for shared administrative services, including the New Venture Fund. These nonprofits make grants to a range of projects across the ideological spectrum. Arabella Advisors is not the source of funding for any of these organizations, and we do not exert control over the spending decisions of our clients.”