Cole Allen AI slop has predictably taken over Facebook

Cole Allen’s shooting attempt and subsequent arrest at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinners is one of the biggest stories of 2026 so far. News outlets, pundits, aggregators, and creators are all feverishly covering the story with whatever unique angle or commentary presents itself.

But they are not alone in that pursuit. The overseas Facebook grifters have peppered the social media platform with AI-generated slop falsely linking Allen to many professional teams and college programs.

Think I’m kidding?

Go onto Facebook and search for a handful of professional teams or P4 programs and “Cole Allen,” and you’ll see the underbelly that Facebook seems to not mind you seeing, but pretends it’s unaware of.

It’s shocking, but it’s not shocking at all if you know how the sausage is made.

Overseas scammers buy, hack, or steal popular team or school-specific Facebook pages that are either enrolled in or eligible for Facebook’s monetization program. This program pays based on engagement, and you know what reliably gets great engagement? Made-up news!

These pages have some staples they like to run back that include:

• Announcing the death of a relevant person to that page, when they did not actually die
• The announcement of a Netflix documentary about that team of school, when no such project exists or is coming
• Announcing that a star player is now in a relationship with a popular OnlyFans model
• Elon Musk saying he will invest billions of dollars into a major college team or pro team

Yes, you can report these pages, but it seems like a pointless pursuit. Facebook doesn’t police them; they just send them money. It’s all very stupid but predictable.

Nearly the every single one of these pages shares the same attribute: active admins are mostly abroad; Vietnam, Bangladesh, Egypt, and Singapore are the usual suspects. I would not be surprised if the admins of these fake news pages are in the same physical location. Nothing shady at all about an Iowa football page posting only fake news with all of their admins in Vietnam!

These pages also double-dip on the grift by linking in the posts (or the first comment) to random websites you’ve never heard of, with very long URLs, many of which end in .world. A lot of them share the same CMS template and have the same ad networks set up on the site. Perhaps these pages skirt Facebook’s enforcement by pointing to these fake news sites and sources that duped them. Either way, Facebook is paying for fake news on its platform, and ad networks are showing and paying out for ads on fake-news websites.

Facebook users get some combination of dumber and misinformed, or even if they realize the grift, more distrusting of Facebook. Meanwhile, advertisers are advertising their brand next to heinous misinformation either on Facebook or on the fake news content mill websites. It’s a good business for Facebook, ad networks, and especially the overseas grifters who are getting rich with this playbook.

I find it absolutely maddening because the practice extends well beyond sports and is literally poisoning the minds of social media users, yet it’s not just allowed, but financially incentivized. I’ve nudged teams, leagues, networks, and trade groups. Why on earth does this persist in broad daylight, considering how much fake and often harmful information gets traction on Facebook and other platforms? I think a lot of these entities suffer more brand damage through fake news than actual negative news. Can anyone say or do anything to stop the madness?

The best answer I’ve ever got came from a social media expert.

“I see these fake news pages all the time and don’t understand how Meta allows them to exist. Well, I sorta do, those pages get a ton of engagement, and Zuck needs to show shareholders how healthy his platform is.”

Wonderful. Carry on.