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Meta Caught Paying Nazis to Post on Facebook (futurism.com)

submitted 3 days ago by Powderhorn@beehaw.org to c/technology@beehaw.org

11 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Meta was paying out-and-out neo-Nazis to post on Facebook, an investigation from Australia’s ABC News found.

These pages and individual creators posted content that appeared to be in clear violation of Facebook’s own hate speech policies. Nonetheless, they were able to earn money on their posts through the platform’s “Content Monetization” program — which is invitation-only.

One receiving payouts from Meta was Hugo Lennon, a known far-right agitator and white nationalist with ties to neo-Nazi groups. Lennon was taken away by police for hurling racial abuse at India’s prime minister Narendra Modi during his stay at a Melbourne hotel, and is believed to be one of the organizers behind an “anti-immigration” march on a sacred Indigenous site in the city last year.

Lennon, in other words, was a known quantity, and Meta should’ve been under no illusions about who they were paying to drive engagement on the platform. Still, the investigation found that he’s been receiving payments from Facebook since September 2025.

Meanwhile, the Facebook page for the Australian white supremacist site The Noticer has been making money through the revenue program since November 2025. Underscoring how much Meta has dropped the ball on this one, even X — owned by Elon Musk, who performed two suspiciously Sieg Heil-looking salutes back in 2025 — has banned The Noticer for violating its “hateful profile policy.”

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[–] petrescatraian@libranet.de 2 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Fair. Friendica stayed well below the radar for pretty much the entire time, even though it sounded a bit familiar for me when I created this account a few years back, and it is also kinda the oldest platform in the Fediverse.

It has many of the features that regular Facebook has, like creation and attending to groups (even this Lemmy community is displayed as a group) as well as events and pages, but also some extra stuff non-privacy related like following RSS feeds directly, as well as supporting BB Code for formatting your text pretty much everywhere (in your posts, comments, in your profile descriptions or in the event descriptions). Not only it supports ActivityPub, but it also supports Diaspora and RSS (as said) and Tumblr and Bluesky (if you have an account there). Server admins can also install add-ons which add all sorts of extra functionality - from compatibility with other networks (with Tumblr, Bluesky or WordPress) to stuff like content filter or collapsing posts if they are not displayed in a language of your choosing (stuff that Facebook, again, doesn't have).

And of course, it is not owned by Meta, nor it has the privacy invasive features of it, nor it does spy you across the web whether you have an account on it or not, nor does it pump billions into failed projects like the Metaverse only to later pull the plug, nor it invests into AI projects or spy glasses.

If you're more curious about it, I wrote a handy guide myself here a while ago (I'm not involved into the development of it, but this was the best way I could contribute - and sorry for the Google site). There's a server list here where you can pick your server (if you want a recommendation, pick friendica.world for the largest server, or loma.ml for a bigger selection of add-ons) and a video guide on both YouTube and [https://peertube.stream/w/p/4K4MWYXMEYUtVDqKjjq4Uu?playlistPosition=1]PeerTube](https://peertube.stream/w/p/4K4MWYXMEYUtVDqKjjq4Uu?playlistPosition=1) if you're feeling a bit overwhelmed. And there's a support group at !helpers

[–] DdCno1@beehaw.org 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Thanks for taking the time to write this in-depth reply!

[–] petrescatraian@libranet.de 1 points 2 days ago

You're welcome! And sorry, I expected Friendica to be more known here on the Fediverse 😁