Fake news gets lots of readers - 24th February 2020

North Carolina is in the United States of America. It has a new Facebook page. The page is about local news. But there is a big problem. It is a fake news page.

North Carolina is important in the 2020 US elections. Politicians need to win this state. The Facebook page started a month ago. Now, it has over 50,000 followers. It wants people to vote for President Trump.

The page says students manage it. It says the students are at North Carolina State University. They are doing a social-media project. The project is about how quickly people can share news.

The university says this is not true. The university thinks it is Russian bots.

The page uses real news. But the news is old. The stories aren’t from North Carolina. Some stories are racist.

One story is about a woman. She had 18 babies at once. Another story is about coronavirus in North Carolina. Some stories are fake.

Facebook is now checking the page.