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Over the weekend, I've been seeing ads on #Facebook and #Instagram for http://objectivo.eu , which claims to be an "independent and fact based" blog covering mostly EU affairs. It looked sketchy so I decided to dig a little deeper... (thread)
Their stories seem to be largely opinion- and commentary-based, often with a strongly critical angle against the EU, and far from factual news reporting. They are clearly not written by native English speakers, as there are several linguistic errors.
Looking at the website itself, I could find no information on who is behind the blog, where they are located or when they were founded. The 3 authors seem to be posting eponymously but when looking up the names on Google, LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter, you get nothing.
EXCEPT one: Marta Loeb. Her name comes up on this @POLITICOEurope story by @markscott82 and @NicholasVinocur about an ad campaign targeting the Commission presidential candidates in 2019, linked to a fake author's Medium profile. https://www.politico.eu/article/secret-ad-campaign-targets-top-jobs-race/
Back in 2019 the campaign managed to slip through the cracks of Google's and Facebook's ad systems without labeling the ads as political and therefore not having to provide information on the advertiser's background and affiliation.
Similarly, http://objectivo.eu ads are catalogued on Facebook's Ad Library but there's a lack of helpful information on who manages the Page and their location, or how much they have spent on the ads. https://www.facebook.com/ads/library/?active_status=all&ad_type=all&country=BE&impression_search_field=has_impressions_lifetime&view_all_page_id=108755073874627
