Failed DC Chancellor Michelle Rhee Sees Fishy Bangladeshi Like Spike As Anti-Reform Swarm
POSTED BY STEVEN HALE ON FRI, MAR 21, 2014 AT 11:04 AM
Did Michelle Rhee's education organization StudentsFirst buy thousands of Facebook "likes" from a click farm in Bangladesh?
Opponents of Rhee's "Ed reform" group — which has spent big money on state legislative and local school board elections in Tennessee — say yes, they did, in an attempt to inflate the movement's perceived popularity. StudentsFirst says the likes were indeed fraudulent, but that they didn't buy them. In fact, they suggest that their opponents might've bought the likes for the page, then called attention to them in an act of sabotage.
In other words, it's just another day on the education beat.
The allegations of fraudulent Facebook-ing emerged Wednesday, when a group called the Tennessee Momma Bears published what they found when they went looking into StudentsFirst apparent social media popularity. In short, they didn't believe there could possibly be that many people liking the group on Facebook.
They found...this!
"StudentsFirst's Facebook "likes" were bought from Bangladesh!!!" they write. As proof that this sort of thing can be done — and it absolutely can be done — they link to an example of such a place offering to sell hundreds of likes for your Facebook page.
The Momma Bears post was re-blogged by Diane Ravitch, an education commentator who is perhaps the most prominent opponent of Rhee and the movement she represents. Attention from Ravitch propelled the story into Education Twitter, a truly frightening place where you should not dare to tread.
StudentsFirst responded yesterday by posting a chart on Facebook that showed the number of likes they had paid for on the StudentsFirst Alabama page — the one that initially drew suspicion — in the last month, with the caption "Nice try."
