Politics

Pro-Trump Facebook group ‘Deplorables’ sold to Macedonians for $15K

If you’re a fan of the extremely large Facebook group “Deplorables,” you may have noticed some changes over the last few days.  On Sunday, Dan Schwartz, one of the original creators of the group, said he sold the group to Macedonians for $15,000 in an exclusive interview with the Conservative Firing Line.

“I sold the Brooklyn Bridge,” he told me, explaining that the group — which currently boasts over 488,000 followers — isn’t even something he owns.  “None of us own anything on Facebook,” he said.  “We’re just guests.”

Facebook’s legal terms clearly state that accounts, pages and apps are not to be transferred without written permission.

Schwartz explained the money will help pay for much-needed eye surgery, and he is in the process of moving out of state.

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According to a post he made on a Facebook event, Schwartz said he sold the group to a “Macedonian s**t-poster from Veles, who set the group to admin-only posting and he removed the other admins.”  Schwartz said he left the group and recommends that others leave as well.

Veles, Macedonia, he added, was called “the city getting rich from fake news” by the BBC.

The group is currently being administered by a collection of other Facebook pages promoting posts from two or three websites, presumably based in Macedonia.

It’s generally believed that much of the fake and misleading stories that flourished in the 2016 election originated from Macedonia, sparking a year-long effort by social media sites and search engines to combat “fake news.”  Sadly, that effort has resulted in a number of mainstream conservative sites being targeted for censorship and demonetization.

Schwartz said he informed the other administrators of the sale, but two of the administrators we spoke to said they weren’t aware of the transaction until after it already took place.  One administrator who helped build the group started an alternative, which can be seen here.  Schwartz further said that while he lost a couple of personal friends in the process, most of those he spoke to were supportive and understood his reasons.

“It’s just a Facebook group.  I don’t own it.  It’s like the Brooklyn Bridge.  I sold something I didn’t own for $15,000,” he said.  “I did exactly what Donald Trump would do.”

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Banned: How Facebook enables militant Islamic jihad
Banned: How Facebook enables militant Islamic jihad – Source: Author (used with permission)

 

 

Joe Newby

A 10-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, Joe ran for a city council position in Riverside, Calif., in 1991 and managed successful campaigns for the Idaho state legislature. Co-author of "Banned: How Facebook enables militant Islamic jihad," Joe wrote for Examiner.com from 2010 until it closed in 2016 and his work has been published at Newsbusters, Spokane Faith and Values and other sites. He now runs the Conservative Firing Line.

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