Through posts that appear completely harmless and go viral, social media users are ultimately confronted with religious fundamentalism and extremism and lured into extreme religious groups!

We recently reported HERE how Facebook users are being lured into various religious fundamentalist groups with trivial and simple sayings or questions. These simple questions are also known as > “comment baiting”. With so-called “comment baiting” you are encouraged to comment. This is done by asking simple questions.

But it's not just about simple questions like "What was your favorite perfume in the 80s" or "Which concert are you grateful for having experienced?" or "What would you never buy even if you were very rich?" “ worked to attract tens of thousands of users to Facebook groups or Facebook pages, but also with emotional images of children .

Warning about religious extreme groups on Facebook!

Here is an example from the Facebook group called: “The Power of Prayer WhatsApp Prayer Group”

This is how Facebook users are lured into extreme religious groups
Screenshot: Facebook group

The photo was posted on April 14, 2023. Apparently it was the boy's birthday that day and no one would have shared his photo because he was disabled, according to the creator. In addition, the open questions “Can I make a wish?” and “Is there anyone who can share my photo?”

It is clear that many users do not question this and do not deny the boy's wish. Here the emotion is used again and many users share this picture with their friends list and the cycle begins again. Due to this so-called “comment baiting” these religious extreme groups on Facebook are getting bigger every day!

We are dealing with two different phenomena here!

  1. INTERACTIONS, INCREASE REACH AND CATCHING MEMBERS: In order to increase interactions in these extreme religious groups, emotional images are posted so that these religious fundamentalist Facebook groups gain more and more reach and the number of members continuously grows!
  2. FAKE NEWS: People don't shy away from putting fakes into circulation, because this boy didn't have his birthday that day!
    The boy is little Lucas Costa from Brazil, whose birthday is in December and is now 15 years old! Little Lucas suffers from a rare skin disease called “Epidermolysis bullosa”. published his true story HERE back in 2018 .

At first glance it all seems harmless, but what is really happening?

If you comment on a Facebook post like this, in most cases it will also be shown to your friends and vice versa. This happens through the Facebook algorithm in conjunction with public groups. Since these are simple questions, many people take part.

If you comment on such status updates, Facebook assumes that you are interested in this content, pages and groups and shows you more and more of it on your homepage and in the news feed. This increases the reach of these posts.

If you comment on such status updates, you will in most cases receive a private message. According to our research, this message begins with an invitation to an online sermon about faith and life and how to welcome the return of Jesus. At the end of the message, dates for these online sermons will be suggested.

Conclusion

The identity behind these sites and groups is not clear, and the question of whether they are truly cults cannot be answered with certainty. What is known, however, is that it is religious fundamentalism.

Users are enticed to interact through simple questions or emotional images and ultimately engaged in a conversation. There is a suspicion that members are being recruited in this way. During our research we came across the “Church of Almighty God” from China.

Religious communities become dangerous when they claim sole truth and want to oppress their members and separate them from others. The Evangelical Information Center for Churches, Sects and Religions points out that the Church of Almighty God is actively recruiting new members, especially believing Christians, and that missionary pressure can be high in Facebook groups.

We recommend not commenting or sharing simple questions or emotional images on Facebook associated with religious groups or pages, as these interactions increase their reach on Facebook. There are also sponsored posts from time to time, but it remains unclear why Facebook itself doesn't do anything about it, even though they are regularly reported.

Sources:

Also read: Warning about religious, fundamentalist pages and groups on Facebook

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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )