A North Macedonian expert on “fake news” is leveraging his former success as a great content creator as his calling card.
You will not be able to sleep from the joy of your new life as you “get the life of your dreams,” “Monthly profits from 1,000 to 6,000 euros,” and more! On one website, there are pictures of a man wearing a pink shirt standing on a yacht or wearing a suit while going through a sophisticated business center, among other alluring claims of a total reversal and the opportunity to “take back your life.”
The website is Mirko Ceshelkoski’s online marketing university “Mr. New Life,” which launched in May of this year. Ceshelkoski is the man in these and other images that indicate dazzling achievements in life. Ceshelkoski, who has 26 years of expertise in online marketing and making money online, offers courses that range in price from 599 to 999 euros to share the secrets of his success and show others how to improve their life.
However, Mr. New Life’s site, like other sites where he sells his services, also includes some peculiar content in addition to motivational words, the costs for the training classes, and the contact and payment forms.
Know more as you read
Excerpts from newspapers with headlines like “The Fake News Machine,” “Inside the Macedonian Fake News Complex,” and “Money, Lies, and Manipulation – The Dark Forces Behind Fake News” have been published by CNN, Wired, Singapore Today, and other international media.
Additionally, he posts videos in which he is referred to as a “fake news strategist” and “a clickbait coach,” and he appears in interviews while holding a business card that reads, “The man who helped Donald Trump win the US election.”
Cheshelkoski’s moment of fame came after Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2016 US presidential election.
Fake News Factory
This is since a “fake news factory” in the town of Veles, in the center of North Macedonia, was partly to blame for Trump’s triumph, and Ceshelkoski served as at least a loose inspiration for the faker news hub.
Several foreign media outlets knocked on Ceshelkoski’s door asking for interviews in the two to three years following 2016, as the impact of disinformation on elections and democratic processes became a hot topic on the international stage and social networks were compelled to start taking action to remove false content from their platforms.