Thousands of people in the Netherlands encounter Facebook pages each day that appear to share news. According to the investigative platform Justice for Prosperity (JfP), many of these pages actually publish content meant to provoke anger and hostility, created mainly to earn money through advertising. This conclusion follows a scan of more than 250 Facebook pages.
Location
Many of these pages are largely operated from abroad. According to JfP, most posts include a prompt to “read more in the comments”, where users are redirected via a link to an advertisement‑filled website. The more outrage a post generates, the more visitors click through, resulting in more revenue for the operators. JfP says this pattern is measurable.
Taregtted
The researchers found that the hostility stirred up on these pages is mainly directed at foreigners and politicians. People who follow these channels “receive a distorted picture of events and prevailing views in the Netherlands”. JfP warns that large groups of users are drawn in through genuine dissatisfaction and then gradually pushed toward greater anger by administrators who care only about engagement. According to the platform, more than 65 percent of the comments examined could be classified as contemptuous or angry.
Business
On these Facebook channels, hate and polarisation have effectively become a business model, JfP states. This dynamic fuels unrest and undermines democracy. As long as this model continues, it erodes mutual trust among Dutch citizens and harms the quality of public debate. The platform describes this as a systematic poisoning of the public conversation.
Of all the pages investigated, 85 percent are managed from abroad, mainly from Vietnam. Some pages are run within the Netherlands. For example, JfP identified a couple from Groningen who operate a network of 21 Facebook pages.
@anp | NEWSBRAINPORT
