Campaign violation? Mysterious ‘North Bergen Today’ sponsored post raises eyebrows

If you “be from NB”… then you’ve probably seen NBC 4 NY’s I-Team reports covering Mayor Nicholas Sacco on the Facebook page North Bergen Today.

Until seeing a recent sponsored post against the Schools Realignment Plan, it seemed the page had been a source of reposting news and videos that are mostly anti-Sacco. The post is sponsored in both English and Spanish, you can watch the advertisement below:

The sponsored post takes a stance on a ballot measure, but lacks any disclosure regarding who paid for the political advertisement. A NJ Election Law Enforcement Commission representative indicated to HudPost by phone that the advertisement itself might constitute a campaign ethics violation due to lack of disclosure.

Facebook, which updated its political sponsored content policies following Russia’s 2016 election interference, reveals that the sponsored post is paid for by North Bergen Today.

The issue is that North Bergen Today doesn’t have a website identifying who exactly the publisher is. We sent a message to the page asking the administrator to identify themselves and who paid for the sponsored posts. The message was “left on seen,” but the administrator declined to respond in a relatively timely fashion.

This leaves us wondering – who is behind North Bergen Today?