A mystery astroturfing online campaign targeting Scott Morrison’s refusal to give more funding to hospitals to deal with COVID-19 case peaks has spent more than $10,000 to advertise to more than half a million Australians.
This campaign shows how online tools can be used to instantaneously show political advertising at targeted audiences without disclosure of who’s behind it.
On September 28, a “We Love Our Hospitals – WLOH” Facebook page was created and weloveourhospitals.org was registered. While the About section claims it’s for showing appreciation “for our hospitals and the wonderful people who work in them”, the page’s handful of posts focus on attacking the federal government for a lack of hospital funding.
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