Occupy Democrats

Occupy Democrats is an American left-wing media outlet built around a Facebook page and corresponding website. Established in 2012, it publishes false information, hyperpartisan content, and clickbait. Posts originating from the Occupy Democrats Facebook page are among the most widely shared political content on Facebook. History Occupy Democrats was established as a Facebook page in 2012 by Rafael and Omar Rivero. A corresponding website was later created. Its stated objective is to provide a "counterbalance to the Republican Tea Party". In September 2022, Occupy Democrats was accused of having raised almost $800,000 for its election fund and donating none of the money to federal candidates, and of donating $250,000 from the fund to Blue Deal LLC, a company owned by Rafael Rivero. In response to the accusations, Omar Rivero claimed that the fund operated as a super PAC and was barred from donating directly to candidates, and that none of the money given to Blue Deal LLC had gone to him or Rafael. Axios journalist Lachlan Markay said that the election fund was actually a hybrid PAC and thus could donate to political candidates. Influence In a 2017 feature on partisan news, BuzzFeed News analyzed weekly Facebook engagements "since the beginning of 2015 and found that Occupy Democrats on the left and Fox News on the right are the top pages in each political category". The article added that the pages "consistently generate more total engagement than the pages of major media outlets".