A high-level Australian union official was yesterday suspended amid claims he was involved in a fake “Black Lives Matter” (BLM) Facebook page that raked in thousands of dollars in donations.
Broadcaster CNN reported that the fake page had almost 700,000 followers — more than twice as many as the official Black Lives Matter page — before it was suspended.
It allegedly ran fundraising campaigns earning more than US$100,000, purportedly for Black Lives Matters causes in the US.
CNN said that some of the money was transferred to Australian bank accounts, raising new questions about the integrity of Facebook’s platform and the content hosted there.
A senior Australia’s National Union of Workers (NUW) figure — who is white — was linked by the broadcaster to the fake page and other black rights Web sites.
The union, which represents workers across various industries, said two people had been suspended.
“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,” union national secretary Tim Kennedy said in a statement. “The NUW is not involved in and has not authorized any activities with reference to claims made in CNN’s story.”
Black Lives Matter is an activist organization set up in the US to campaign against violence and racism against black people.
Patrisse Cullors, a cofounder of the movement, tweeted that she had complained to Facebook and Twitter about numerous fake accounts.
“These fake BLM accounts and fake BLM people literally stealing money off of Black Death is so stomach churning I can’t even begin to explain,” she said. “We told fb [Facebook] over and over again to shut that shit down. And it wouldn’t. Glad it’s down now.”
The revelations come with Facebook — used by 2 billion people — under huge pressure globally for massive lapses in protecting personal data.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
CONFLICTING REPORTS: Beijing said it was ‘not familiar with the matter’ when asked if Chinese jets were used in the conflict, after Pakistan’s foreign minister said they were The Pakistan Army yesterday said it shot down 25 Indian drones, a day after the worst violence between the nuclear-armed rivals in two decades. Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif vowed to retaliate after India launched deadly missile strikes on Wednesday morning, escalating days of gunfire along their border. At least 45 deaths were reported from both sides following Wednesday’s violence, including children. Pakistan’s military said in a statement yesterday that it had “so far shot down 25 Israeli-made Harop drones” at multiple location across the country. “Last night, India showed another act of aggression by sending drones to multiple locations,” Pakistan military spokesman Ahmed
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said that he would make a decision about how the US government would refer to the body of water commonly known as the Persian Gulf when he visits Arab states next week. Trump told reporters at the White House that he expects his hosts in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates will ask him about the US officially calling the waterway the Arabian Gulf or Gulf of Arabia. “They’re going to ask me about that when I get there, and I’ll have to make a decision,” Trump said. “I don’t want to hurt anybody’s
RSS