Inside the Fake News Factory of Macedonia

(precocious music)

[Guy] My challenge for this assignment was to essentially

try and photograph something that had happened

that wasn't ongoing and to use the landscape,

locations, internet cafes, places that had seen

an involvement in a huge world issue that arguably

might have changed the outcome of the U.S. election.

There used to be a factory over on the horizon,

there used to be this here, there used to be that here.

When I began to think about those jobs

and the opportunities, the jobs that were lost

and the opportunities that were now available

to Macedonians in that town, particularly to Veles' youth,

then that gave me an idea that, well, if there were

a feeling of no opportunities or that young people's options

were severely limited, then I could begin to work from that

and that perhaps this story, rather than having people

in the midst of doing things, I could rely the recent

history and the location to piece

this story together like that.

They figured very early on that the stories,

just through analytics and data,

the stories that were clicked most,

the stories that were followed through on Facebook

to their logical conclusion, were the outrageous stories

of Trump supporters and the Republican party.

And they very quickly realized that there was much more

money to be made, but in very small increments, half a cent,

whatever it is, through Google ad revenue that you get,

that the people that clicked on links the most

who didn't check their veracity, who didn't care for it,

who just wanted to see the headline, were Trump supporters.

And so with Boris, the guy just wanted to make some money

and when he was making lots of money, he managed,

he figured he could quit school.

I don't think his teachers were particularly strong

at trying to get him to remain in school.

He was making a lot of money, more money than they would

in a year and they encouraged him.

It was always my intention to capture a more reportage

moment of him engaging with his friends,

perhaps in one of those internet cafes,

perhaps in one of those bars,

but all of those things just didn't materialize

in the way that I would have liked to.

I spoke to him about how he'd like to be photographed,

how he would like to be sitting, where we should do it,

it was a cooperation to get that picture

of him sitting on the computer screen.

Macedonia's response to being caught up

or being the center of one of the biggest stories

of 2016, with fake news and the sharing of fake news online,

I think was met with kind of a little bit of grudging

respect for the people that had done it.

There was something else out there

and they wanted a piece of it.