Army for hire: the artist employing ghost soldiers to invade Facebook

In resurrecting an 18th-century mercenary army, Constant Dullaart has found a novel way to skewer the social media empire

Constant Dullaart uses the internet to expose the internet. The Dutch artist, who once hunted down the first ever Photoshopped image – so he could see it before it was altered – is now taking on the ultimate champion of digital fantasies: Facebook.

He’s hiring a ghost army of 18th-century soldiers to attack the most mighty empire of today. His online art intervention, called The Possibility of an Army, will expose the ease with which fake identities can be created online. He has enlisted people to open Facebook accounts with the names of mercenary soldiers hired by Britain in the American war of independence. He is literally creating a fake army of dead men.

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