Facebook Page Transparency details and new networks

[zpoch]

While investigating tonight I noticed a new feature on Facebook Pages called Page Transparency. This has info about the page ownership that could be useful to connect the dots and identify other pages.

I have seen 2 different designations so far for page ownership.

• Confirmed Page Owner
• Page Owner

There are sites that have been identified as connected in this that can easily show other related sites with a quick Google site search.

site:facebook.com "Local Government Information Services"

Searching for the apparent owner of many of the initial sites from Illinois comes up with around 363 results. Most are these types of sites, but I did find 2 that do not fit the news mold, but are definitely pushing their core issues.

• defendhomeowners.com (inactive)
• saveyourhomenow.org (active with Facebook page) https://www.facebook.com/pages/category/Interest/Save-Your-Home-Now-469980050187830/

Some other owner names from other Facebook pages we are tracking in the CSV.

• Local Government Information Services
• The Record

Many others listed have unnamed owners, but show Metric Media banners across the top of the page.

Looking into the pages owned by The Record shows the following ownership information:

Page Owner: The Record
Rolling Meadows, IL 60008
United States of America
+13127362092

Additional investigating into Metric Media has uncovered some interesting information, and a new network of sites running labeled "Product of LocalLabs" in the footer with author "Metric Media News Service". See https://collegeparktoday.com/author/metric-media-news-service

A NY Times article about Metric Media and who runs it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/21/us/michigan-metric-media-news.html

His bio page https://www.situationmanagementgroup.com/brad-bio.

President of Metric Media LLC, a national media company that operates more than 1,100 community-based news sites.

Oddly enough LGIS and LocalLabs were both named in a complaint by the FEC for their original scheme in Illinois. https://www.fec.gov/files/legal/murs/7148/19044475209.pdf

[Bermos]

I'm still waiting to have my Facebook ID confirmed so I can start scraping their api, I hope that should yield some results (or I'd have given Facebook even more data about me for nothing...)

[mariotacke]

@Bermos, that's awesome. I just got approved for the Twitter API, so I can take care of those for now.