After it was revealed that the biggest Black Lives Matter page on Facebook was a fake and not at all related to either the global movement or any of the local chapter organizations, many people who have either supported or given money to BLM organizations have expressed concern about how they can determine whether a page purportedly affiliated with BLM is real.
Their concerns are valid. A middle-aged white man in Australia reportedly managed to raise and pocket thousands of dollars in the name of Black Lives Matter. The Facebook page that helped him do it had more than twice the number of followers of the official Black Lives Matter page.
People were fooled, and they don’t want to be fooled again.
The Black Lives Matter Global Network released an official statement Tuesday in response to the reports on the fraudulent social media accounts, and included links to official BLM social media accounts so that followers will know how to find them:
Since its inception, the Black Lives Matter Global Network has regularly dealt with the misappropriation of our name and likeness, which has compromised the integrity of our local, national, and global work.
We live in a digital world, and it’s extremely important that platforms like Facebook and Twitter do their due diligence with users so that supporters of our movement, and movements like ours, aren’t misled and that resources aren’t misappropriated.
We regret that so many people were deceived by the recent high profile scam into believing that their gifts and donations benefitted us.
For months after noting the fraudulent profiles, the Black Lives Matter Global Network and many of our allies reached out to both Twitter and Facebook to request the fake profiles be deactivated and taken down. Unfortunately, our requests received no adequate response and many supporters continued to be misled. We are relieved that the fraudulent profiles have ultimately been removed and hope that the social media platforms will soon adopt protocols to stop this from happening again.
The correct social media handles for the Black Lives Matter Global Network are as follows:
- Twitter: @blklivesmatter
- Facebook: @BlackLivesMatter
- Instagram: @blklivesmatter
- Website: blacklivesmatter.com