A huge Facebook page linked to the Black Lives Matter movement has been removed after it transpired that it was a scam run by a white man in Australia.
According to CNN (via BBC), the fake account was part of a larger operation of online fundraising platforms, which have raised over £71,000 (USD $100,000, AUS $129,000).
Patrisse Khan Cullors, one of the founders of the Black Lives Matter movement, tweeted: "Last month we demanded @Twitter to take down the fake twitter BLM account.
"This month the fake BLM Facebook account was shut down. It's so unfortunate folks were scammed by fake BLM accounts and people. "
Patrisse also told CNN that Black Lives Matter had contacted Facebook several months ago regarding the fake page.
The fake page – which has twice as many likes as the official account – was removed by one of its administrators after they were contacted by CNN.
According to CNN, the people running the fake Black Lives Matter account also had other fundraising pages on platforms such as Donorbox, Paypal and Patreon – which all contributed to the £71,000 figure raised.
Meanwhile, following the huge fallout from the still-unfolding Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook is going to contact the 87 million users affected by its data breach.
The social media network will contact affected users through a detailed message about the situation that will appear on their news feed.
