"Digital Mana Under Siege: How Facebook's Algorithm Warfare Fails to Silence Indigenous Truth" - 30 June 2025
Evidence-based analysis of 90 days of Facebook data reveals how Indigenous truth pierces algorithmic suppression to reach audiences targeted by anti-Māori disinformation.
Tēnā koutou katoa – warm greetings to everyone.
I’m The Māori Green Lantern, your kaitiaki in the digital realm, standing guard against the tidal wave of far-right misinformation that threatens our whenua and our people. Below is an evidence-based kōrero that examines what the most recent Facebook analytics (1 April – 29 June 2025) reveal about the impact of our mahi, including the three-day suspension that hit our page from 23 – 26 June 2025.
The mission has always been clear: expose white-supremacist narratives, debunk Treaty denialism, and amplify Māori truth. Facebook remains the busiest pā of our online network, so its numbers offer a litmus test of how well that kaupapa is resonating. Let’s turn to the data.
BACKGROUND: THE ONLINE CLIMATE FOR MĀORI VOICES
Independent researchers confirm that anti-Māori disinformation is surging, driven by the same networks that once spread Covid conspiracies and now target co-governance and Te Tiriti justice, spurring talk of “civil war” in Aotearoa, according to a recent 1News investigation. The Disinformation Project finds these narratives piggy-back on global far-right themes such as “white genocide” and “replacement theory”, directly attacking Māori sovereignty. Scholars have also shown that social media algorithms often privilege racist content while throttling Indigenous voices, a pattern criticised by Māori digital ethicists who say government policy has failed to safeguard Māori data rights. Against that backdrop of digital hostility, measuring reach, engagement, and resonance becomes a critical marker of resistance.
DATA OVERVIEW: WHAT THE 90-DAY ANALYTICS SHOW
Followers
1,189 total followers – up 5.2% on the previous 90 days.
Net gain of 61 despite 81 unfollows, signalling steady growth even in a hostile environment.
Engagement
15,656 total interactions – only a 9.4% dip despite a 30.8% slump in total views, which suggests committed whānau are interacting more intensely with the content they do see.
64.4% of those interactions came from non-followers. In other words, almost two-thirds of kōrero and sharing is happening beyond the echo-chamber – direct evidence that counter-narratives are penetrating new circles.
Shares made up 28% of all interactions. A share is the strongest signal that a post has cut through disinformation and motivated someone to carry that kōrero into their own network.
Reach
327,675 views, all organic. Zero paid reach confirms the kaupapa stands on its own mana rather than boosted dollars.
78% of views came from non-followers, reinforcing the point that the tohu of truth is travelling well outside the existing hapori.
Content Mix
Link posts generated 67% of all views. Most links point to long-form essays and investigative pieces on our website and Substack, proving followers are willing to leave Facebook’s walled garden for deeper evidence.
Reels and videos account for only 8% and 4% of views respectively, showing modest but strategic use of multimedia formats.
Demographics
89.7% of followers hail from Aotearoa – appropriate for a page focused on local political decolonisation.
Age skew sits in the 45 + bracket, with 48.4% over 55. These are high-voting-age cohorts often targeted by far-right fear campaigns; winning their attention is crucial.
EFFECTIVENESS INDICATORS
Piercing the Bubble The fact that non-followers provide almost two-thirds of interactions and four-fifths of all views tells us the content is travelling far beyond the faithful. That level of reach into neutral or even oppositional audiences is fundamental when confronting misinformation, because it prevents the far right from monopolising undecided minds.
Resistance Under Algorithmic Strain Overall views fell 30.8%, in line with broader reports that Facebook’s algorithm deprioritises Indigenous political content. Yet interaction dropped just 9.4%, meaning that each impression is generating more kōrero, more shares, and more reactions than before – evidence of a resilient digital kaupapa that converts scarce visibility into potent engagement.
Quality Over Vanity Metrics With 4,382 shares and 2,297 comments, the page delivers whakaaro-rich conversations, not hollow vanity reactions. Shares distribute counter-narratives; comments create public debates where misinformation can be openly challenged.
SUSPENSION IMPACT: 23 – 26 JUNE 2025 The abrupt three-day ban silenced direct posting and removed earlier posts from news-feeds. Reviewing the insights graph reveals a conspicuous dip in views and interactions over that period, followed by a rapid spike once the page reopened. This pattern mirrors documented cases where Facebook briefly penalised Indigenous advocates and then restored reach after public pressure, as detailed by Māori data sovereignty experts.
Crucially, the bounce-back suggests whānau were primed to engage the moment the page returned – a sign of community resilience. However, the temporary silencing likely contributed to the end-of-month trough visible in the 90-day line graph and therefore depressed the overall view count by the close of June.
IMPLICATIONS FOR THE KAUPAPA
Algorithmic Adversity The platform’s willingness to suspend a page devoted to factual decolonial analysis, even briefly, underscores warnings from Māori scholars that Big Tech rules can replicate colonial silencing. Each suspension risks erasing critical counter-narratives right when disinformation campaigns peak.
Community Tenacity Despite structural hostility, audience commitment remains fierce. Every unboosted share represents a user acting as a digital kaitiaki, spreading verified information to networks that might otherwise consume far-right propaganda unchecked.
Data-Driven Mana These metrics prove that careful, evidence-based storytelling maintains traction with older voting blocs—often portrayed as soft targets for misinformation—while still resonating across New Zealand’s broader population. The kaupapa is neither fringe nor confined; it is mainstreaming truth.
The numbers lay it bare: even inside an algorithm that privileges sensationalism and often sidelines Indigenous truth, The Māori Green Lantern page grows, sustains high-value engagement, and penetrates beyond its follower base. That 64% non-follower interaction rate is a concrete blow against the far-right echo chambers. The three-day suspension showed the fragility of Indigenous speech online, yet the swift rebound confirmed the community’s hunger for authentic analysis.
Mauri tū, mauri ora – while the struggle against disinformation continues, the data proves our light still pierces the digital darkness.
If this kōrero serves your own journey, please consider a koha to keep the torch burning: HTDM 03-1546-0415173-000. Only give if you have the capacity. E rere te māramatanga – let truth keep flying.
