One of the most famous The New Yorker cartoons noted that, "On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog". This still rings true it seems, with CNN reporting that a fake Black Lives Matter (BLM) page on Facebook received more than twice the followers than the official BLM page. Worse, the page is apparently a scam, with links to a middle-aged white man in Australia.

Money raised through the page, purportedly going towards the BLM movement Stateside, was channelled to Australian bank accounts. The site has now been disabled by Facebook, after initially noting that it did not actually contravene community guidelines and could not be taken down.

The name tied to the debacle is Ian Mackay, a National Union of Workers official in Australia. Mackay has registered many websites linked to black rights issues, including blackpowerfist.com and blacklivesmatter.media. He has denied involvement with the BLM Facebook page, but has now been suspended from the NUW while the union investigates the situation.

The fake BLM Facebook page has come under suspicion before, with a co-founder of BLM reporting it to Facebook, while freelance investigator, Jeremy Massler already reported on it in December 2017.  

The news come at a bad time for Facebook, with Mark Zuckerberg appearing before the US Congress to explain Facebook’s involvement in the Cambridge Analytica scandal.