The biggest Black Lives Matter page on Facebook is spreading fake news

In December, I reported that the biggest Black Lives Matter page on Facebook,  facebook.com/blacklivesmatter1, was a sham. After I published my story, BlackLivesMatter1 took down its Shop page and removed its Donate buttons. However, the BlackLivesMatter1 page remains popular, with over 694,000 followers.  (You can read my original story here.)

Yesterday, BlackLivesMatter1 began posting links to a new domain: BlackLivesMatterMedia.com.  This domain contains embedded links to news stories, and it basically acts as a middleman between the headlines on BlackLivesMatter1 and the news sites.

The very first article embedded on BlackLivesMatterMedia was a fake news story from BreakingNews247.net, claiming that an old photo of the 1936 Yankees showed the players kneeling in protest during the National Anthem.  Snopes debunked this story back in November, and several commenters on the BlackLivesMatter1 Facebook page called out the story as fake.  Nevertheless, the post has been shared 867 times and liked 1,678 times.

This isn't the first time BlackLivesMatter1 has amplified fake news.  A post in December claimed the city of Chicago was under martial law.  Most notably, the page shared a 4Chan meme claiming the dab was "a secret White Supremacist signal."  That post (which is still up) has been shared over 7,400 times:

There is a "DONATE" page on BlackLivesMatterMedia.com, where you can give money in order to help boost the stories on Facebook.  (I won't link directly to the donation page, but you can view an archive here.)  The "Buy Now" button takes you to PayPal.  A drop-down menu shows dollar amounts ranging from $4.99 to $4,999.99.

It's a free country, and if folks want to give money to a sketchy, anonymous Facebook page, that's their right.  I just hope anyone who's thinking of giving money to BlackLivesMatter1 (AKA "Black Lives Matter Media") will do some research first.