NORTH MACEDONIA. 2019. Veles. The small Macedonian town of Veles (population ca 50 000) placed itself on the world map during the US elections in 2016, when it became an epicentre for the production of fake news. Looking for a way to make money, local youth created hundreds of “news” websites that emulated American political news portals, with names such as NYTimesPolitics.com, Trump365.com, USAnewsflash.com. These were spread to millions through Facebook and Twitter, and while the local youth made good money from the resulting Google ad revenues, they could also have inadvertently have had an impact on the election of Donal Trump.

Facebook and Twitter changed their algorithms to shut down such activities, but several of the Veles operators were found to have been active in the 2020 Trump vs Biden election as well.

("The Book of Veles" series is an exploration of the possibilities of digitally manufactured imagery, with every picture being subject to manipulation.)