Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
The dirty secret behind Ben Shapiro's success on Facebook
The success of The Daily Wire, the website run by right-wing pundit Ben Shapiro, on Facebook is mind-boggling. The site has a small staff and primarily aggregates content from Twitter and other news outlets. Typically, its articles are very short, usually less than 500 words, and contain no original reporting.
And yet, last month, The Daily Wire was the seventh-ranked publisher on Facebook, according to the analytics service NewsWhip. Articles published in The Daily Wire attracted 60,616,745 engagements in May. Engagement is a combination of shares, likes, and comments, and is a way of quantifying distribution on Facebook. The reach of The Daily Wire's articles was equal to the New York Times (60,722,727) and more than the Washington Post (49,219,525).
But that actually understates how well The Daily Wire does on Facebook. While the New York Times published 15,587 articles in May, and the Washington Post published 8,048, The Daily Wire published just 1,141. On a per article basis, The Daily Wire receives more distribution than any other major publisher. And it's not close.
What explains The Daily Wire's phenomenal success on Facebook? Popular Information revealed part of the answer last October. But the full story is much darker.
Popular Information has discovered a network of large Facebook pages each built by exploiting racial bias, religious bigotry, and violence that systematically promote content from The Daily Wire. These pages, some of which have over 2 million followers, do not disclose a business relationship with The Daily Wire. But they all post content from The Daily Wire ten or more times each day. Moreover, these pages post the exact same content from The Daily Wire at the exact same time.
The undisclosed relationship not only helps explain The Daily Wire's unlikely success on Facebook but also appears to violate Facebook's rules...
https://popular.info/p/the-dirty-secret-behind-ben-shapiros
And yet, last month, The Daily Wire was the seventh-ranked publisher on Facebook, according to the analytics service NewsWhip. Articles published in The Daily Wire attracted 60,616,745 engagements in May. Engagement is a combination of shares, likes, and comments, and is a way of quantifying distribution on Facebook. The reach of The Daily Wire's articles was equal to the New York Times (60,722,727) and more than the Washington Post (49,219,525).
But that actually understates how well The Daily Wire does on Facebook. While the New York Times published 15,587 articles in May, and the Washington Post published 8,048, The Daily Wire published just 1,141. On a per article basis, The Daily Wire receives more distribution than any other major publisher. And it's not close.
What explains The Daily Wire's phenomenal success on Facebook? Popular Information revealed part of the answer last October. But the full story is much darker.
Popular Information has discovered a network of large Facebook pages each built by exploiting racial bias, religious bigotry, and violence that systematically promote content from The Daily Wire. These pages, some of which have over 2 million followers, do not disclose a business relationship with The Daily Wire. But they all post content from The Daily Wire ten or more times each day. Moreover, these pages post the exact same content from The Daily Wire at the exact same time.
The undisclosed relationship not only helps explain The Daily Wire's unlikely success on Facebook but also appears to violate Facebook's rules...
https://popular.info/p/the-dirty-secret-behind-ben-shapiros
Being friends with Zuck has benefits apparently.
Link to tweet
Link to tweet
Link to tweet
InfoView thread info, including edit history
TrashPut this thread in your Trash Can (My DU » Trash Can)
BookmarkAdd this thread to your Bookmarks (My DU » Bookmarks)
4 replies, 1513 views
ShareGet links to this post and/or share on social media
AlertAlert this post for a rule violation
PowersThere are no powers you can use on this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
ReplyReply to this post
EditCannot edit other people's posts
Rec (10)
ReplyReply to this post
4 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
The dirty secret behind Ben Shapiro's success on Facebook (Original Post)
LessAspin
Jun 2020
OP
Skittles
(153,147 posts)1. ugh
I don't understand how any progressive can be on that piece of shit site, it is disgusting
Mind boggling the many excuses they have.
guillaumeb
(42,641 posts)2. Zuckerburg only cares about money.
Well, his own money.
qazplm135
(7,447 posts)3. it's pretty clear Zuckerberg
is a conservative and quite frankly in bed with the far right fringe.