The Brief: A pro-Trump Facebook page with over 1 million fans called "I Love America" was removed by Facebook after it was revealed to be run by Ukrainians.

Bluesquiggle
DEEP DIVE

“I Love America”

Founded in 2017, “I Love America” was a Facebook page with a significant online reach and over 1.1 million fans. Posts on the page included patriotic and nationalistic images, memes, and comments. Content included from photos of dogs, pro-military image macros, and political memes supporting President Donald Trump.

Notably, the “I Love America” page frequently would repost memes from the Internet Research Agency: a Russian company known as a “troll farm” that is notorious for creating fake American social media accounts to interfere with the United States political system.

Although the content on this Facebook page was specifically geared towards Americans, it was actually run by a group of people in Ukraine.

In a post for the political newsletter Popular Information and an extensive Twitter thread, Judd Legum exposed how this Facebook page and a network of similar patriotic and pro-Trump ones are run by groups of Ukrainians. According to Legum, “I Love America” is only the “tip of the iceberg” when it comes to social media-based Ukrainian-run operations that direct audiences to “rabidly pro-Trump pages.”

“I Love America” and similar Ukrainian-managed pages feature a range of content including incendiary posts and false information.

Facebook Removes Page

After initially telling Legum that this page did not violate its policies, Facebook later removed “I Love America” and the other Ukrainian-run pro-Trump pages Legum called out in his piece. Facebook cited “policies against spam and fake accounts” as its reason for taking down these pages. A Facebook spokesperson told The Washington Post that the company is “continuing to investigate for any further violations.”