While browsing through Facebook, Alt News recently came across a post on a page named Levi Ponce containing a link to an interview featuring Aaj Tak journalist Shweta Singh. The... The post Exclusive: How Facebook pages are misusing names...

While browsing through Facebook, Alt News recently came across a post on a page named Levi Ponce containing a link to an interview featuring Aaj Tak journalist Shweta Singh. The post caught our attention due to the title, which read, “A confession that surprised everyone!”. It also contained a preview card to a BBC article in which Singh was quoted as saying that she was ashamed of what she had done.

The headline and preview card of this post were so sensational that it prompted us to click on it. Upon opening the link, we were redirected not to the BBC’s website but to a website named thirdlasagna.com which did not have any interviews. We found that the domain redirected to a crypto scam website. (Archived link)

Alt News started looking into the page, and in its Transparency section, we discovered it had been continuously running advertisements. When we opened the Ad Library report of the page, we noticed that this page had run numerous such ads on Facebook, Instagram, Audience Network and Messenger, all containing the same format. In these advertisements, a link is promoted using the image of a public figure or personality and names of international media outlets. This page has run several advertisements using Shweta Singh’s name and picture, screenshots of which are given below. Some of these advertisements have now been deleted, but we have stored their offline versions in a file above the sheets in this article, which readers can download and view.

In the Ad Library of the same page, we found an advertisement featuring images of senior Indian journalist Karan Thapar and Congress MP Shashi Tharoor. This ad, too, promoted a website (thirdlasagna.com) which redirected to a crypto scam domain. One such advertisement featured Karan Thapar’s image, but Shweta Singh was referenced in the text, wherein BBC quoted her as saying that she was ashamed of what she did. (Archived link)

Upon further investigation, Alt News also came across a number of other Facebook pages running such advertisements on both Facebook and Instagram. Some of these are:

It is worth noting that these pages used the same format to promote bizarre links using the names of public personalities and international media outlets, including Indian journalists Karan Thapar and Shweta Singh. The ads also used the same sensationalist headlines and link previews, quoting journalists and several other celebrities, claiming that they were ashamed of their actions. The names of BBC.com and BBC.in were used in these advertisements. Some screenshots have been given below for readers to refer to. 

Ratan Tata and Kriti Sanon Victims of Fake Ads

The pages ran advertisements targeting Indian industrialist Ratan Tata and actress Kriti Sanon. A Facebook page named Dytrc shared an edited photo of Ratan Tata and ran an advertisement with it containing a false claim regarding a technical glitch which could change the income of Indians. The preview link mentions that officials tried to interrupt this interview, but it was too late as he had already spoken about it. The other featured a photo of actress Kriti Sanon. The ad read, “Koffee with Karan host Karan Johar called Kriti Sanon ‘irresponsible’ and said on air that ‘financial information of this magnitude can shake the foundation of Indian society.’”

Names of International Media Outlets and Celebrities Misused

Apart from Indian journalists, industrialists, actresses and leaders, names of other celebrities and many international media outlets have been used in the advertisements by these Facebook pages, which include journalists, sports persons, politicians, and other public figures from a variety of countries including India. All the information about advertisements is given in the sheets below. Some of these advertisements have now been removed, so we have stored the offline versions of these advertisements. (All the files related to this sheet can be downloaded by clicking on this link.)