Fake News Website: From Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

Fake news website
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fake news websites (also referred to as hoax news[1][2]) deliberately publish hoaxes, propaganda, and
disinformation purporting to be real news often using social media to drive web traffic and amplify their
effect.[3][4][5] Unlike news satire, fake news websites seek to mislead, rather than entertain, readers for
financial, political, or other gain.[6][4] Such sites have promoted political falsehoods in Germany,[7][8]
Indonesia and the Philippines,[9] Sweden,[10][11] Myanmar,[12] and the United States.[13][14][15] Many sites
originate, or are promoted, from Russia,[3][13][16] Macedonia,[17][18] Romania,[19] and the U.S.[20][21]
Contents
1
Overview of coverage
2
Definition
3
Pre-Internet history
4
Prominent sources
4.1 Macedonia
4.2 Romania
4.3 Russia
4.3.1 Internet Research Agency
4.3.2 European Union response
4.3.3 Counter-Disinformation Team
4.3.4 Internet trolls shift focus to Trump
4.3.5 U.S. intelligence analysis
4.4 United States
5 Impact
5.1 Austria
5.2 Brazil
5.3 Canada
5.4 China
5.5 Finland
5.6 France
5.7 Germany
5.8 India
5.9 Indonesia and Philippines
5.10 Italy
5.11 Myanmar
5.12 Pakistan
5.13 Poland
5.14 Sweden
5.15 Taiwan
5.16 Ukraine
5.17 United Kingdom
5.18 United States
5.18.1 2016 election cycle
5.18.2 U.S. response to Russia in Syria
5.18.3 Legislative and executive responses
5.18.4 False conspiracy theories and 2016 pizzeria attack
6 Response
6.1 Fact-checking websites and journalists
6.2 Google CEO comment and actions
6.3 Facebook deliberations
6.3.1 Blocking fraudulent advertisers
6.3.2 Response
6.3.3 Partnership with debunkers
6.4 Proposed technology tools
6.5 Others
7 Academic analysis
8 See also
9 Footnotes
10 References
11 Further reading
12 External links
Overview of coverage
One pan-European newspaper, The Local, described the proliferation of fake news as a form of
psychological warfare.[10] Some media analysts have seen it as a threat to democracy.[8] The European
Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs in 2016 passed a resolution warning that the Russian
government was using "pseudo-news agencies" and Internet trolls as disinformation propaganda to weaken
confidence in democratic values.[5]
In 2015, the Swedish Security Service, Sweden's

national security agency, issued a report concluding
Russia was using fake news to inflame "splits in
society" through the proliferation of propaganda.[10]
Sweden's Ministry of Defence tasked its Civil
Contingencies Agency with combat fake news from
Russia.[10] Fraudulent news affected politics in
Indonesia and the Philippines, where there was
simultaneously widespread usage of social media and
limited resources to check the veracity of political Screenshot of a fake news story, falsely stating
claims.[9] German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned of Donald Trump won the popular vote in the 2016
the societal impact of "fake sites, bots, trolls".[8] U.S. election[22][23]
Fraudulent articles spread through social media during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.[13][14][15] Several
officials within the U.S. Intelligence Community said that Russia was engaged in spreading fake news.[24]
Computer security company FireEye concluded that Russia used social media to spread fake news stories as
part of a cyberwarfare campaign.[25] Google and Facebook banned fake sites from using online advertising.
[26][27]
Facebook launched a partnership with fact-checking websites to flag fraudulent news and hoaxes;
debunking organizations that joined the initiative included: Snopes.com, FactCheck.org, and PolitiFact.[28]
U.S. President Barack Obama said a disregard for facts created a "dust cloud of nonsense".[29] Chief of the
Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) Alex Younger called fake news propaganda online dangerous for
democratic nations.[30]
Definition
Some fake news websites use website spoofing, structured to
make visitors believe they are visiting trusted sources like ABC
News or MSNBC.[18] The New York Times defined "fake news"
on the Internet as fictitious articles deliberately fabricated to
deceive readers, generally with the goal of profiting through
clickbait.[31] PolitiFact described fake news as fabricated ABCnews.com.co - fake site creating
content designed to fool readers and subsequently made viral hoaxes by using website spoofing
through the Internet to crowds that increase its dissemination.
[32]
Denver Guardian
Fake news maintained a presence on the Internet and in tabloid
journalism in the years prior to the 2016 U.S. election.[31] Prior
to the election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, fake
news had not impacted the election process and subsequent
events to such a high degree.[31] Subsequent to the 2016 RealTrueNews
election, the issue of fake news turned into a political weapon, Examples of fake news websites
with supporters of left-wing politics saying that right-wing
politics spread false news, while the latter claimed they were
being "censored".[31] Due to these back-and-forth complaints, the definition of fake news as used for such
polemics became more vague.[31]
Pre-Internet history
Unethical journalistic practices existed in printed media for hundreds of years before the invention of the
Internet.[33][34][35] Yellow journalism, reporting from a standard which is devoid of morals and professional
ethics, was pervasive during the time period in history known as the Gilded Age, and unethical journalists
would engage in fraud by fabricating stories, interviews, and made-up names for scholars out of whole
cloth.[34][33] During the 1890s the spread of this unethical news sparked violence and conflicts.[33] Both
Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst fomented yellow journalism in order to increase profits,
which helped lead to misunderstandings which became partially responsible for the outset of the Spanish-
American War in 1898.[36] According to USA Today, newspapers which have a history of commonly
publishing fake news have included Globe, Weekly World News, and The National Enquirer.[36]
Prominent sources
Prominent among fraudulent news sites include false propaganda created by individuals in the countries of
Russia,[3][5] Macedonia,[17][18] Romania,[19] and the United States.[20][21]
Macedonia
Much of the fake news during the 2016 U.S. presidential election
season was traced to adolescents in Macedonia,[17][37] specifically
Veles. It is a town of 50,000 in the middle of the country, with high
unemployment, where the average wage is $4,800.[38] The income
from fake news was characterized by NBC News as a gold rush.[38]
Adults supported this income, saying they were happy the youths
were working.[39] The mayor of Veles, Slavcho Chadiev, said he was
not bothered by their actions, as they were not against Macedonian
law and their finances were taxable.[38] Chadiev said he was happy if Fraudulent news stories during the
fraud from Veles influenced the results of the 2016 U.S. election in 2016 U.S. election were traced to
favor of Trump.[38] teenagers in Veles, Macedonia.
BuzzFeed News and The Guardian separately investigated and found

teenagers in Veles created over 100 sites spreading fake news stories supportive of Donald Trump.[17][40][41]
The teenagers experimented with left slanted fake stories about Bernie Sanders, but found that pro-Trump
fictions were more popular.[40] Prior to the 2016 election the teenagers gained revenues from fake medical
advice sites.[42] One youth named Alex stated, in an August 2016 interview with The Guardian, that this
fraud would remain profitable regardless of who won the election.[17] Alex explained he wrote articles by
plagiarism, copy and pasting from other websites.[17] This could net them thousands of dollars daily, but
they averaged only a few thousand per month.[42]
The Associated Press (AP) interviewed an 18-year-old in Veles about his tactics.[39] A Google Analytics
analysis of his traffic showed more than 650,000 views in one week.[39] He plagiarized pro-Trump stories
from a right-wing site called The Political Insider.[39] He said he did not care about politics, and published
fake news to gain money and experience.[39] The AP used DomainTools to confirm the teenager was behind
fake sites, and determined there were about 200 websites tracked to Veles focused on U.S. news, many of
which mostly contained plagiarized legitimate news to create an appearance of credibility.[39]
NBC News also interviewed an 18-year-old there.[38] Dmitri (a pseudonym) was one of the most profitable
fake news operators in town, and said about 300 people in Veles wrote for fake sites.[38] Dmitri said he
gained over $60,000 during the six months prior through doing this, more than both his parents' earnings.[38]
Dmitri said his main dupes were supporters of Trump.[38] He said after the 2016 U.S. election he continued
to earn significant amounts.[38]
Romania
"Ending the Fed", a popular purveyor of fraudulent reports, was run by a 24-year-old named Ovidiu Drobota
out of Oradea, Romania, who boasted to Inc. magazine about being more popular than mainstream media.[19]
Established in March 2016, "Ending the Fed" was responsible for a false story in August 2016 that
incorrectly stated Fox News had fired journalist Megyn Kelly the story was briefly prominent on
Facebook on its "Trending News" section.[19] "Ending the Fed" held four out of the 10 most popular fake
articles on Facebook related to the 2016 U.S. election in the prior three months before the election itself.[19]
The Facebook page for the website, called "End the Feed", had 350,000 "likes" in November 2016.[19] After
being contacted by Inc. magazine, Drobota stated he was proud of the impact he had on the 2016 U.S.
election in favor of his preferred candidate Donald Trump.[19] According to Alexa Internet, "Ending the Fed"
garnered approximately 3.4 million views over a 30-day-period in November 2016.[19] Drobota stated the
majority of incoming traffic is from Facebook.[19] He said his normal line of work before starting "Ending
the Fed" included web development and search engine optimization.[19]
Russia
Internet Research Agency
Beginning in fall 2014, The New Yorker writer Adrian Chen performed
a six-month investigation into Russian propaganda online by a group
called the Internet Research Agency.[16] Evgeny Prigozhin, a close
Saint
associate of Vladimir Putin, was behind the operation which hired Petersburg
hundreds of individuals to work in Saint Petersburg.[16] The group was
regarded as a "troll farm", a term used to refer to propaganda efforts
controlling many accounts online with the aim of artificially providing a
semblance of a grassroots organization.[16] Chen reported that Internet
trolling was used by the Russian government as a tactic largely after
observing the social media organization of the 2011 protests against A Russian propaganda "troll
Putin.[16] farm" was traced back to Saint
Petersburg.
European Union response
In 2015, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe

released an analysis critical of disinformation campaigns by Russia
masked as news.[43] This was intended to interfere with Ukraine
relations with Europe after the removal of former Ukraine president
Viktor Yanukovych.[43] According to Deutsche Welle, similar tactics
were used in the 2016 U.S. elections.[43] The European Union created
a taskforce to deal with Russian disinformation.[5][43][44] The
taskforce, East StratCom Team, had 11 people including Russian
European Union parliamentary
Committee on Foreign Affairs passed speakers.[45] In November 2016, the EU voted to increase the group's
a resolution in November 2016, funding.[45] In November 2016, the European Parliament Committee
condemning Russian "pseudo-news on Foreign Affairs passed a resolution warning of the use by Russia
agencies" and Internet trolls. of tools including: "pseudo-news agencies ... social media and
internet trolls" as disinformation to weaken democratic values.[5] The
resolution requested EU analysts investigate, explaining member nations needed to be wary of
disinformation.[5] The resolution condemned Russian sources for publicizing "absolutely fake" news reports.
[46]
The tally on 23 November 2016 passed by a margin of 304 votes to 179.[46]
Counter-Disinformation Team
The United States Department of State planned to use a unit called the Counter-Disinformation Team,
formed with the intention of combating disinformation from the Russian government, and that it was
disbanded in September 2015 after department heads missed the scope of propaganda before the 2016 U.S.
election.[47][48] The U.S. State Department put eight months into developing the unit before scrapping it.[47] It
would have been a reboot of the Active Measures Working Group set up by Reagan.[48][49] The Counter-
Disinformation Team was set up under the Bureau of International Information Programs.[48][49] Work began
in 2014, with the intention to combat propaganda from Russian sources such as Russia Today.[48][49] U.S.
Intelligence officials explained to former National Security Agency analyst and counterintelligence officer
John R. Schindler that the Obama Administration decided to cancel the unit as they were afraid of
antagonizing Russia.[48][49] U.S. Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy Richard Stengel was point
person for the unit before it was canceled.[48][49] Stengel previously wrote about disinformation by Russia
Today.[50][51][52]
Internet trolls shift focus to Trump
Adrian Chen observed a pattern in December 2015 where pro-Russian

accounts became supportive of 2016 U.S. presidential candidate Donald
Trump.[3] Andrew Weisburd and Foreign Policy Research Institute fellow
and senior fellow at the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at George
Washington University, Clint Watts,[53] wrote for The Daily Beast in August
2016 that Russian propaganda fabricated articles were popularized by social
media.[3] Weisburd and Watts documented how disinformation spread from
Russia Today and Sputnik News, "the two biggest Russian state-controlled
media organizations publishing in English", to pro-Russian accounts on
In December 2015 Adrian
Twitter.[3] Citing research by Chen, Weisburd and Watts compared Russian
Chen noticed pro-Russia
tactics during the 2016 U.S. election to Soviet Union Cold War strategies.[3] accounts suddenly became
They referenced the 1992 United States Information Agency report to
supportive of Trump.
Congress, which warned about Russian propaganda called active measures.
[3]
They concluded social media made active measures easier.[3] Institute of
International Relations Prague senior fellow and scholar on Russian intelligence, Mark Galeotti, agreed the
Kremlin operations were a form of active measures.[24] The most strident Internet promoters of Trump were
not U.S. citizens but paid Russian propagandists. The Guardian estimated their number to be in the "low
thousands" in November 2016.[54]
Weisburd and Watts collaborated with colleague J. M. Berger and published a follow-up to their Daily Beast
article in online magazine War on the Rocks, titled: "Trolling for Trump: How Russia is Trying to Destroy
Our Democracy".[53][55][56] They researched 7,000 pro-Trump accounts over a two-and-a-half year period.[55]
Their research detailed trolling techniques to denigrate critics of Russian activities in Syria, and proliferate
lies about Clinton's health.[55] Watts said the propaganda targeted the alt-right, the right wing, and fascist
groups.[53] After each presidential debate, thousands of Twitter bots used hashtag #Trumpwon to change
perceptions.[57]
In November 2016 the Foreign Policy Research Institute[a] stated Russian propaganda exacerbated criticism
of Clinton and support for Trump.[13][14][15] The strategy involved social media, paid Internet trolls, botnets,
and websites in order to denigrate Clinton.[13][14][15] Watts stated Russia's goal was to damage trust in the
U.S. government.[13] Conclusions by Watts and colleagues Andrew Weisburd and J.M. Berger were
confirmed by research from the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University and
by the RAND Corporation.[13]
The group PropOrNot[b] came to similar conclusions about involvement by Russia in propagating fake news
during the 2016 U.S. election.[13][14] The Washington Post and PropOrNot received criticism from The
Intercept,[60] Fortune,[58] Rolling Stone,[61] AlterNet,[62] Adrian Chen at The New Yorker,[59] and in an
opinion piece in the paper itself, written by Katrina vanden Heuvel.[63]
U.S. intelligence analysis
Computer security company FireEye concluded Russia used social media as

a weapon to influence the U.S. election.[25] FireEye Chairman David DeWalt
said the 2016 operation was a new development in cyberwarfare by Russia.
[25]
FireEye CEO Kevin Mandia stated Russian cyberwarfare changed after
fall 2014, from covert to overt tactics with decreased operational security.[25]
Bellingcat analyst Aric Toler explained fact-checking only drew further
attention to the fake news problem.[64]
U.S. Intelligence agencies debated why Putin chose summer 2016 to escalate
active measures.[65] Prior to the election, U.S. national security officials said
they were anxious about Russia tampering with U.S. news.[57] Director of FireEye chairman David
National Intelligence James R. Clapper said after the 201113 Russian DeWalt concluded the
protests, Putin lost self-confidence, and responded with the propaganda Russian operation during the
2016 election was a new
operation.[65] Former CIA officer Patrick Skinner said the goal was to spread
development in cyberwarfare
uncertainty.[64] House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Adam by Russia.
Schiff commented on Putin's aims, and said U.S. intelligence were
concerned with Russian propaganda.[65] Speaking about disinformation that
appeared in Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Poland, Schiff said there was an increase of the
same behavior in the U.S.[65]
U.S. intelligence officials stated in November 2016 they believed Russia engaged in spreading fake news,[24]
and the FBI released a statement saying they were investigating.[24][57] Two U.S. intelligence officials each
told BuzzFeed News they "believe Russia helped disseminate fake and propagandized news as part of a
broader effort to influence and undermine the presidential election".[24] The U.S. intelligence sources stated
this involved "dissemination of completely fake news stories".[24] They told BuzzFeed the FBI investigation
specifically focused on why "Russia had engaged in spreading false or misleading information".[24]
United States
Impact
Fake news has influenced political discourse in multiple countries, including Germany,[8] Indonesia and the
Philippines,[9] Sweden,[10] China,[66][67] Myanmar,[68][12] and the United States.[3]
Austria
Politicians in Austria dealt with the impact of fake news and its spread on social media after the 2016
presidential campaign in the country.[69] In December 2016, a court in Austria issued an injunction on
Facebook Europe, mandating it block negative postings related to Eva Glawischnig-Piesczek, Austrian
Green Party Chairwoman.[69] According to The Washington Post the postings to Facebook about her
"appeared to have been spread via a fake profile" and directed derogatory epithets towards the Austrian
politician.[69] The derogatory postings were likely created by the identical fake profile that had previously
been utilized to attack Alexander van der Bellen, who won the election for President of Austria.[69]
Brazil
Brazil faced increasing influence from fake news after the 2014 re-election of President Dilma Rousseff and
Rousseff's subsequent impeachment in August 2016.[70] In April 2016 60% of the most-shared articles on
Facebook about the impeachment proceedings against Rousseff were fake.[70] In 2015, reporter Tai Nalon
resigned from her position at Brazilian newspaper Folha de S.Paulo in order to start the first fact-checking
website in Brazil, called Aos Fatos (To The Facts).[70] Nalon told The Guardian there was a great deal of
fake news, and hesitated to compare the problem to that experienced in the U.S.[70]
Canada
Fake news online was brought to the attention of Canadian politicians in November 2016, as they debated
helping assist local newspapers.[71] Member of Parliament for Vancouver Centre Hedy Fry specifically
discussed fake news as an example of ways in which publishers on the Internet are less accountable than
print media.[71] Discussion in parliament contrasted increase of fake news online with downsizing of
Canadian newspapers and the impact for democracy in Canada.[71] Representatives from Facebook Canada
attended the meeting and told members of Parliament they felt it was their duty to assist individuals gather
data online.[71]
China
Fake news during the 2016 U.S. election spread to China.[70] Articles popularized within the United States
were translated into Chinese and spread within China.[70] The government of China used the growing
problem of fake news as a rationale for increasing Internet censorship in China in November 2016.[72] China
took the opportunity to publish an editorial in its Communist Party newspaper The Global Times called:
"Western Media's Crusade Against Facebook", and criticized "unpredictable" political problems posed by
freedoms enjoyed by users of Twitter, Google, and Facebook.[66] China government leaders meeting in
Wuzhen at the third World Internet Conference in November 2016 said fake news in the U.S. election
justified adding more curbs to free and open use of the Internet.[67] China Deputy Minister Ren Xianliang,
official at the Cyberspace Administration of China, said increasing online participation led to "harmful
information" and fraud.[73] Kam Chow Wong, a former Hong Kong law enforcement official and criminal
justice professor at Xavier University, praised attempts in the U.S. to patrol social media.[74] The Wall Street
Journal noted China's themes of Internet censorship became more relevant at the World Internet Conference
due to the outgrowth of fake news.[75]
Finland
Officials from 11 countries held a meeting in Helsinki in November 2016, in order to plan the formation of a
center to combat disinformation cyber-warfare including spread of fake news on social media.[76] The center
is planned to be located in Helsinki and include efforts from 10 countries with participation from Sweden,
Germany, Finland, and the U.S.[76] Prime Minister of Finland Juha Sipil planned to deal with the center in
spring 2017 with a motion before the Parliament of Finland.[76] Jori Arvonen, Deputy Secretary of State for
EU Affairs, said cyberwarfare became an increased problem in 2016, and included hybrid cyber-warfare
intrusions into Finland from Russia and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.[76] Arvonen cited examples
including fake news online, disinformation, and the little green men troops during the Ukrainian crisis.[76]
France
France saw an uptick in amounts of disinformation and propaganda, primarily in the midst of election
cycles.[70] Le Monde fact-checking division "Les dcodeurs" was headed by Samuel Laurent, who told The
Guardian in December 2016 the upcoming French presidential election campaign in spring 2017 would face
problems from fake news.[70] The country faced controversy regarding fake websites providing false
information about abortion.[70] The government's lower parliamentary body moved forward with intentions
to ban such fake sites.[70] Laurence Rossignol, women's minister for France, informed parliament though the
fake sites look neutral, in actuality their intentions were specifically targeted to give women fake
information.[70] During the 10-year period preceding 2016, France was witness to an increase in popularity
of far-right alternative news sources called the fachosphere ("facho" referring to fascist); known as the
extreme right on the Internet.[70] According to sociologist Antoine Bevort, citing data from Alexa Internet
rankings, the most consulted political websites in France included galit et Rconciliation, Franois
Desouche, and Les Moutons Enrags.[77][78] These sites increased skepticism towards mainstream media
from both left and right perspectives.[70]
Germany
German Chancellor Angela Merkel lamented the problem of fraudulent news reports in a November 2016
speech, days after announcing her campaign for a fourth term as leader of her country.[8] In a speech to the
German parliament, Merkel was critical of such fake sites, saying they harmed political discussion.[8]
Merkel called attention to the need of government to deal with Internet trolls, bots, and fake news websites.
[8]
She warned that such fraudulent news websites were a force increasing the power of populist extremism.
[8]
Merkel called fraudulent news a growing phenomenon that might need to be regulated in the future.[8]
Germany's foreign intelligence agency Federal Intelligence Service Chief, Bruno Kahl, warned of the
potential for cyberattacks by Russia in the 2017 German election.[79] He said the cyberattacks would take the
form of the intentional spread of disinformation.[79] Kahl said the goal is to increase chaos in political
debates.[79] Germany's domestic intelligence agency Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution
Chief, Hans-Georg Maassen, said sabotage by Russian intelligence was a present threat to German
information security.[79]
India
India had over 50 million accounts on the smartphone instant

messenger Whatsapp in 2016.[70] On November 8, 2016, India
established a 2,000-rupee currency bill on the same day as the Indian
500 and 1,000 rupee note demonetisation. Fake news went viral over
Whatsapp that the note came equipped with spying technology
The new 2000 note which tracked bills 120 meters below the earth.[70] Finance Minister
Arun Jaitley refuted the falsities, but not before they had spread to
the country's mainstream news outlets.[80] Prabhakar Kumar of the Indian media research agency CMS, told
The Guardian India was harder hit by fake news because the country lacked media policy for verification.[70]
Law enforcement officers in India arrested individuals with charges of creating fictitious articles,
predominantly if there was likelihood the articles inflamed societal conflict.[70] BBC Monitoring cited
Pakistan Today which noted an apt example of post-truth politics, a statement by politician and broadcaster
Aamir Liaquat about the Kargil War between India and Pakistan.[81] Liaquat defended the Pakistan Armed
Forces actions in a doublethink statement akin to: "we didn't invade Kargil and we taught the Indians a
lesson when we invaded Kargil".[81] BBC Monitoring used this example to observe fake news reporting was
prominent in the Middle East.[81]
Indonesia and Philippines
Fraudulent news has been particularly problematic in Indonesia and the Philippines, where social media has
an outsized political influence.[9] According to media analysts, developing countries with new access to
social media and democracy felt the fake news problem to a larger extent.[9] In some developing countries,
Facebook gives away smartphone data free of charge for Facebook and media sources, but at the same time
does not provide the user with Internet access to fact-checking websites.[9]
Italy
Between October 1 and November 30, 2016, ahead of the Italian

constitutional referendum, five out of ten referendum-related stories with
most social media participation were hoaxes or inaccurate.[83][84] Of the three
stories with the most social media attention, two were fake.[84] Prime
Minister of Italy Matteo Renzi met with U.S. President Obama and leaders
of Europe at a meeting in Berlin, Germany in November 2016, and spoke
about the fake news problem.[82] Renzi hosted discussions on Facebook Live
in an effort to rebut falsities online.[83] The influence became so heavy that a
senior adviser to Renzi began a defamation complaint on an anonymous
Twitter user who had used the screenname "Beatrice di Maio".[70]
President of the Italian
The Five Star Movement (M5S), an Italian political party founded by Beppe Chamber of Deputies, Laura
Grillo, managed fake news sites amplifying support for Russian news, Boldrini, stated: "Fake news
propaganda, and inflamed conspiracy theories.[82][85] The party's site TzeTze is a critical issue and we
had 1.2 million Facebook fans and shared fake news and pieces supportive cant ignore it. We have to
of Putin cited to Russia-owned sources including Sputnik News.[85] TzeTze act now."[82]
plagiarized the Russian sources, and copied article titles and content from
Sputnik.[86] TzeTze, another site critical of Renzi called La Cosa, and a blog
by Grillo were managed by the company Casaleggio Associati which was started by Five Star Movement
co-founder Gianroberto Casaleggio.[85] Casaleggio's son Davide Casaleggio owns and manages TzeTze and
La Cosa, and medical advice website La Fucina which markets anti-vaccine conspiracy theories and
medical cure-all methods.[86] Grillo's blog, Five Star Movement fake sites use the same IP addresses, Google
Analytics and Google Adsense.[86]
Cyberwarfare against Renzi increased, and Italian newspaper La Stampa brought attention to false stories by
Russia Today which wrongly asserted a pro-Renzi rally in Rome was actually an anti-Renzi rally.[70] In
October 2016, the Five Star Movement disseminated a video from Kremlin-aligned Russia Today which
falsely reported displaying thousands of individuals protesting the 4 December 2016 scheduled referendum
in Italy when in fact the video that went on to 1.5 million views showed supporters of the referendum.
[85][86]
President of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, Laura Boldrini, stated: "Fake news is a critical issue and
we cant ignore it. We have to act now."[82] Boldrini met on 30 November 2016 with vice president of public
policy in Europe for Facebook Richard Allan to voice concerns about fake news.[82] She said Facebook
needed to admit they were a media company.[82]
Myanmar
In 2015, fake stories using unrelated photographs and fraudulent captions were shared online in support of
the Rohingya.[87] Fake news negatively affected individuals in Myanmar, leading to a rise in violence
against Muslims in the country.[68][12] Online participation surged from one percent to 20 percent of
Myanmar's total populace from 2014-2016.[68][12] Fake stories from Facebook were reprinted in paper
periodicals called Facebook and The Internet.[12] False reporting related to practitioners of Islam in the
country was directly correlated with increased attacks on people of the religion in Myanmar.[68][12] Fake
news fictitiously stated believers in Islam acted out in violence at Buddhist locations.[68][12] BuzzFeed News
documented a direct relationship between the fake news and violence against Muslim people.[68][12] It noted
countries that were relatively newer to Internet exposure were more vulnerable to the problems of fake news
and fraud.[12]
Pakistan
Khawaja Muhammad Asif, the Minister of Defence of Pakistan, threatened to nuke Israel on Twitter after a
false story claiming that Avigdor Lieberman, the Israeli Ministry of Defense, said "If Pakistan send ground
troops into Syria on any pretext, we will destroy this country with a nuclear attack."[88][89]
Poland
Polish historian Jerzy Targalski noted fake news websites had infiltrated Poland through anti-establishment
and right-wing sources that copied content from Russia Today.[90] Targalski observed there existed about 20
specific fake news websites in Poland which spread Russian disinformation in the form of fake news.[90]
One example cited was fake news that Ukraine announced the Polish city of Przemyl as occupied Polish
land.[90]
Sweden
The Swedish Security Service issued a report in 2015 identifying propaganda from Russia infiltrating
Sweden with the objective to amplify pro-Russian propaganda and inflame societal conflicts.[10] The
Swedish Civil Contingencies Agency (MSB), part of the Ministry of Defence of Sweden, identified fake
news reports targeting Sweden in 2016 which originated from Russia.[10] Swedish Civil Contingencies
Agency official Mikael Tofvesson stated a pattern emerged where views critical of Sweden were constantly
repeated.[10] The MSB identified Russia Today and Sputnik News as significant fake news purveyors.[10] As a
result of growth in this propaganda in Sweden, the MSB planned to hire six additional security officials to
fight back against the campaign of fraudulent information.[10]
Taiwan
In a report in December 2015 by The China Post, a fake video shared online showed people a light show
purportedly made at the Shihmen Reservoir.[91] The Northern Region Water Resources Office confirmed
there was no light show at the reservoir and the event had been fabricated.[91] The fraud led to an increase in
tourist visits to the actual attraction.[91]
Ukraine
Deutsche Welle interviewed the founder of Stopfake.org in 2014 about the website's efforts to debunk fake
news in Ukraine, including media portrayal of the Ukrainian crisis.[92] Co-founder Margot Gontar began the
site in March 2014, and it was aided by volunteers.[92] In 2014, Deutsche Welle awarded the fact-checker
website with the People's Choice Award for Russian in its ceremony The BOBs, recognizing excellence in
advocacy on the Internet.[92] Gontar highlighted an example debunked by the website, where a fictitious
"Doctor Rozovskii" supposedly told The Guardian pro-Ukraine individuals refused to allow him to tend to
injured in fighting with Russian supporters in 2014.[92] Stopfake.org exposed the event was fabricated
there actually was no individual named "Doctor Rozovskii", and found the Facebook photo distributed with
the incident was of a different individual from Russia with a separate identity.[92] Former Ukraine president
Viktor Yanukovych's ouster from power created instability, and in 2015 the Organization for Security and
Co-operation in Europe concluded Russian disinformation campaigns used fake news to disrupt relations
between Europe and Ukraine.[43] Russian-financed news spread disinformation after the conflict in Ukraine
motivated the European Union to found the European External Action Service specialist task force to
counter the propaganda.[43]
United Kingdom
Labour MP Michael Dugher was assigned by Deputy Leader of the Labour Party Thomas Watson in
November 2016 to investigate the impact of fake news spread through social media.[93] Watson said they
would work with Twitter and Facebook to root out clear-cut circumstances of "downright lies".[93] Watson
wrote an article for The Independent where he suggested methods to respond to fake news, including
Internet-based societies which fact-check in a manner modeled after Wikipedia.[94] Conservative MP, and
Minister for Culture Matthew Hancock, stated the British government would investigate the impact of fake
news and its pervasiveness on social media websites.[95] MP Watson stated he welcomed the investigation
into fake news by the government.[95] On 8 December 2016, Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6)
Alex Younger delivered a speech to journalists at the MI6 headquarters where he called fake news and
propaganda damaging to democracy.[30] Younger said the mission of MI6 was to combat propaganda and
fake news in order to deliver to his government a strategic advantage in the information warfare arena, and
assist other nations including Europe.[30] He called such methods of fake news propaganda online as a
"fundamental threat to our sovereignty".[30] Younger said all nations that hold democratic values should feel
the same worry over fake news.[30]
United States
2016 election cycle
Fraudulent stories during the 2016 U.S. presidential election popularized on

Facebook included a viral post that Pope Francis had endorsed Donald
Trump, and another that actor Denzel Washington "backs Trump in the most
epic way possible".[98][99] Donald Trump's son and campaign surrogate Eric
Trump, top national security adviser Michael T. Flynn, and then-campaign
managers Kellyanne Conway and Corey Lewandowski shared fake news
stories during the campaign.[96][100][101][102] Alternet reported that Trump
himself had been the source of some of the related misinformation over the
years.[103]
After the 2016 election, Republican politicians and conservative media

began to appropriate the term "fake news" by using it to describe not made-
up news, but rather genuine news they saw "as hostile to their agenda", U.S. President Barack
according to the New York Times, which cited Breitbart News, Rush
Obama said, "If we can't
Limbaugh and supporters of Donald Trump as dismissing mainstream news
discriminate between serious
reports as "fake news".[104] arguments and propaganda,
then we have
U.S. response to Russia in Syria
problems."[96][97]
The Russian state-operated newswire RIA Novosti, known as Sputnik

International, reported fake news and fabricated statements by White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest.
[105]
RIA Novosti falsely reported on 7 December 2016 that Earnest stated sanctions for Russia were on the
table related to Syria.[105] RIA Novosti falsely quoted Earnest as saying: "There are a number of things that
are to be considered, including some of the financial sanctions that the United States can administer in
coordination with our allies. I would definitely not rule that out."[105] However, the word "sanctions" was
never used by the Press Secretary.[105] Russia was discussed in eight instances during the press conference,
but never about sanctions.[105] The press conference focused solely on Russian air raids in Syria towards
rebels fighting President of Syria Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo.[105]
Legislative and executive responses
Members of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee traveled to Ukraine and Poland in March 2016 and
heard about Russian operations to influence internal Ukrainian matters.[106] Senator Angus King recalled
they were informed about Russia "planting fake news stories" during elections.[106] On 30 November 2016
seven members of the Senate Intelligence Committee asked President Obama to publicize information on
Russia's role in spreading disinformation in the U.S. election.[106][107][108] On 30 November 2016, legislators
approved a measure within the National Defense Authorization Act to finance the U.S. State Department to
act against foreign propaganda.[109][110] The initiative was developed through a bipartisan bill, the Countering
Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act, written by U.S. Senators Republican Rob Portman and
Democrat Chris Murphy.[109] Republican U.S. Senators stated they planned to hold hearings and investigate
Russian influence on the 2016 U.S. elections.[111] By doing so they went against the preference of incoming
Republican President-elect Donald Trump, who downplayed any potential Russian meddling in the election.
[111]
Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman
Richard Burr, U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, and Senator Lindsey
Graham all planned investigations in the 115th U.S. Congress session.[111]
U.S. President Barack Obama commented on fake news online in a speech the day before Election Day in
2016, saying social media spread lies and created a "dust cloud of nonsense."[29][112] Obama commented
again on the problem after the election: "if we can't discriminate between serious arguments and
propaganda, then we have problems."[96][97] On December 9, 2016, President Obama ordered U.S.
Intelligence Community to conduct a complete review of the Russian propaganda operation.[113] In his year-
end press conference on December 16, 2016, President Obama criticized a hyper-partisan atmosphere for
enabling the proliferation of fake news.[114]
False conspiracy theories and 2016 pizzeria attack
In November 2016, fake news sites and Internet forums falsely implicated the restaurant Comet Ping Pong
and Democratic Party figures as part of a fictitious child trafficking ring, which was dubbed "Pizzagate".[115]
The rumor was widely debunked by sources such as the Metropolitan Police Department of the District of
Columbia, fact-checking website Snopes.com, The New York Times, and Fox News.[116][117][118][119] The
restaurant's owners were harassed and threatened, and increased their security.[115][120][121] On 4 December
2016, an individual from Salisbury, North Carolina, walked into the restaurant to "self-investigate" this
conspiracy theory. He brought a semi-automatic rifle, and fired shots before being arrested; no one was
injured.[118][122] The suspect told police that he planned to "self-investigate" the conspiracy theory,[118] and
was charged with assault with a dangerous weapon, carrying a pistol without a license, unlawful discharge
of a firearm, and carrying a rifle or shotgun outside the home or business.[123] After the incident, future
National Security Advisor Michael T. Flynn and his son Michael G. Flynn were criticized by many reporters
for spreading the rumors.[124][125][126] Two days after the shooting, Trump fired Michael G. Flynn from his
transition team in connection with Flynn's Twitter posting of fake news.[127][128] Days after the attack, Hillary
Clinton spoke out on the dangers of fake news in a tribute speech to retiring Senator Harry Reid at the U.S.
Capitol, and called the problem an epidemic.[129][130]
Response
Fact-checking websites and journalists
Fact-checking websites FactCheck.org,[c]

PolitiFact.com,[d] and Snopes.com,[e] authored
guides on how to respond to fraudulent news.
[4][136][137]
FactCheck.org advised readers to PolitiFact.com was praised by rival fact-checker
check the source, author, date, and headline of FactCheck.org and recommended as a resource to debunk
publications.[136] They recommended their fake news sites.
colleagues Snopes.com, The Washington Post
Fact Checker,[f] and PolitiFact.com.[136]
FactCheck.org admonished consumers to be wary of confirmation bias.[136] PolitiFact.com used a "Fake
news" tag so readers could view all stories Polifact had debunked.[137] Snopes.com warned readers social
media was used as a harmful tool by fraudsters.[4] The Washington Post 's "The Fact Checker" manager
Glenn Kessler wrote all fact-checking sites saw increased visitors during the 2016 election cycle.[139] Unique
visitors to The Fact Checker increased five-fold from the 2012 election.[139] Will Moy, director of
London-based fact-checker Full Fact, said debunking must take place over a sustained period to be effective.
[139]
Full Fact worked with Google to help automate fact-checking.[140]
FactCheck.org former director Brooks Jackson said media companies devoted increased focus to the
importance of debunking fraud during the 2016 election.[138] FactCheck.org partnered with CNN's Jake
Tapper in 2016 to examine the veracity candidate statements.[138] Angie Drobnic Holan, editor of
PolitiFact.com, cautioned media companies chiefs must be supportive of debunking, as it often provokes
hate mail and extreme responses from zealots.[138] In December 2016, PolitiFact announced fake news was
its selection for "Lie of the Year".[141][32] PolitiFact explained its choice for the year: "In 2016, the
prevalence of political fact abuse promulgated by the words of two polarizing presidential candidates and
their passionate supporters gave rise to a spreading of fake news with unprecedented impunity."[32]
PolitiFact called fake news a significant symbol of a culture accepting of post-truth politics.[141]
Google CEO comment and actions
In the aftermath of the 2016 U.S. election, Google and Facebook, faced
scrutiny regarding the impact of fake news.[142] The top result on Google for
election results was to a fake site.[143] "70 News" had fraudulently written an
incorrect headline and article that Trump won the popular vote against
Clinton.[22][23][142] Google later stated that prominence of the fake site in
search results was a mistake.[144] By 14 November, the "70 News" result was
the second link shown when searching for results of the election.[142] When
asked shortly after the election whether fake news influenced election
results, Google CEO Sundar Pichai responded: "Sure" and went on to
emphasize the importance of stopping the spread of fraudulent sites.[145] On
14 November 2016, Google responded to the problem of fraudulent sites by
banning such companies from profiting on advertising from traffic through
Google CEO Sundar Pichai
its program AdSense.[26][27][142] Google previously had a policy for denying
said it is possible fake news
ads for dieting ripoffs and counterfeit merchandise.[146] Google stated upon affected the 2016 election.
the announcement they would work to ban advertisements from sources that
lie about their purpose, content, or publisher.[147][148] The ban is not expected
to apply to news satire sites like The Onion, although some satirical sites may be inadvertently blocked
under the new system.[142]
Facebook deliberations
Blocking fraudulent advertisers
One day after Google took action, Facebook decided to block fake sites from advertising there.[27][142]
Facebook said they would ban ads from sites with deceptive content, including fake news, and review
publishers for compliance.[147] These steps by both Google and Facebook intended to deny ad revenue to
fraudulent news sites; neither company took actions to prevent dissemination of false stories in search
engine results pages or web feeds.[26][149] Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg called the notion that fraudulent
news impacted the 2016 election a "crazy idea"[150][151] and denied that his platform influenced the election.
[152]
He stated that 99% of Facebook's content was neither fake news nor a
hoax.[153] Zuckerberg said that Facebook is not a media company.[154]
Zuckerberg advised users to check the fact-checking website Snopes.com
whenever they encounter fake news on Facebook.[155][156]
Top staff members at Facebook did not feel simply blocking ad revenue
from fraudulent sites was a strong enough response, and they made an
executive decision and created a secret group to deal with the issue
themselves.[150][151] In response to Zuckerberg's first statement that
fraudulent news did not impact the 2016 election, the secret Facebook group
disputed this notion, saying fake news was rampant on their website during
the election cycle.[150][151] The secret task force included dozens of Facebook
employees.[150][151]
Facebook CEO Mark
Response Zuckerberg specifically
recommended fact-checking
Facebook faced criticism after its decision to revoke advertising revenues site Snopes.com.
from fraudulent news providers, and not take further action.[157][158] After
negative media coverage including assertions that fraudulent news gave the 2016 U.S. presidential election
to Trump, Zuckerberg posted a second time about it on 18 November 2016.[157][158] The post was a reversal
of his earlier comments on the matter where he had discounted the impact of fraudulent news.[158]
Zuckerberg said there it was difficult to filter out fraudulent news because he desired open communication.
[157]
Measures considered and not implemented by Facebook included adding an ability for users to tag
questionable material, automated checking tools, and third-party confirmation.[157] The 18 November post
did not announce any concrete actions the company would definitively take, or when such measures would
be put into usage.[157][158]
National Public Radio observed the changes being considered by Facebook to identify fraud constituted
progress for the company into a new media entity.[159] On 19 November 2016, BuzzFeed advised Facebook
users they could report posts from fraudulent sites.[160] Users could choose the report option: "I think it
shouldn't be on Facebook", followed by: "It's a false news story."[160] In November 2016, Facebook began
assessing use of warning labels on fake news.[161] The rollout was at first only available to a few users in a
testing phase.[161] A sample warning read: "This website is not a reliable news source. Reason: Classification
Pending".[161] TechCrunch analyzed the new feature during the testing phase and surmised it may have a
tendency towards false positives.[161]
Fake news proliferation on Facebook had a negative financial impact for the company. Brian Wieser of
Pivotal Research predicted that revenues could decrease by two percentage points due to the concern over
fake news and loss of advertising dollars.[162] Shortly after Mark Zuckerberg's second statement on fake
news proliferation on his website, Facebook decided to engage in assisting the government of China with a
version of its software in the country to allow increased censorship by the government.[163] Barron's
contributor William Pesek was highly critical of this move, writing by porting its fake news conundrum to
China, Facebook would become a tool in that country's president Xi Jinping's efforts to increase censorship.
[163]
Partnership with debunkers
Society of Professional Journalists president Lynn Walsh said in November 2016 that the they would reach
out to Facebook to assist weeding out fake news.[164] Walsh said Facebook should evolve and admit it
functioned as a media company.[164] On 17 November 2016, the Poynter International Fact-Checking
Network (IFCN)[g] published an open letter on the Poynter Institute website to Mark Zuckerberg, imploring
him to utilize fact-checkers to identify fraud on Facebook.[167][168] Signatories to the 2016 letter to
Zuckerberg featured a global representation of fact-checking groups, including: Africa Check,
FactCheck.org, PolitiFact.com, and The Washington Post Fact Checker.[167][168] In his second post on the
matter on 18 November 2016, Zuckerberg responded to the fraudulent news problem by suggesting usage of
fact-checkers.[155][156] He specifically identified fact-checking website Snopes.com, and pointed out that
Facebook monitors links to such debunkers in reply comments to determine which original posts were
fraudulent.[155][156]
On 15 December 2016, Facebook announced more specifics in its efforts to combat fake news and hoaxes
on its site.[169][28][170] The company said it would form a partnership with fact-checking groups that had
joined the Poynter International Fact-Checking Network fact-checkers' code of principles, to help debunk
fraud on the site.[28][169] It was the first instance Facebook had ever given third-party entities highlighted
featuring in its News Feed, a significant motivator of web traffic online.[28] The fact-checking organizations
partnered with Facebook in order to confirm whether or not links posted from one individual to another on
the site were factual or fraudulent.[28] Facebook did not finance the fact-checkers, and acknowledged they
could see increased traffic to their sites from the partnership.[28]
Fact-checking organizations that joined Facebook's initiative included: ABC News, The Washington Post,
Snopes.com, FactCheck.org, PolitiFact, and the Associated Press.[28] Fraudulent articles will receive a
warning tag: "disputed by 3rd party fact-checkers."[169] The company planned to start with obvious cases of
hoaxes shared specifically for fraudulent purposes to gain money for the purveyor of fake news.[28] Users
may still share such tagged articles, and they will show up farther down in the news feed with an
accompanying warning.[169] Facebook will employ staff researchers to determine whether website spoofing
has occurred, for example "washingtonpost.co" instead of the real washingtonpost.com.[170] In a post on 15
December, Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged the changing nature of Facebook: "I think of Facebook as a
technology company, but I recognize we have a greater responsibility than just building technology that
information flows through. While we don't write the news stories you read and share, we also recognize
we're more than just a distributor of news. We're a new kind of platform for public discourse -- and that
means we have a new kind of responsibility to enable people to have the most meaningful conversations,
and to build a space where people can be informed."[170]
Proposed technology tools
New York magazine contributor Brian Feldman responded to an article by media communications professor
Melissa Zimdars, and used her list to create a Google Chrome extension that would warn users about
fraudulent news sites.[171] He invited others to use his code and improve upon it.[171] Upworthy co-founder
and The Filter Bubble author Eli Pariser launched an open-source model initiative on 17 November 2016 to
address false news.[172][173] Pariser began a Google Document to collaborate with others online on how to
lessen the phenomenon of fraudulent news.[172][173] Pariser called his initiative: "Design Solutions for Fake
News".[172] Pariser's document included recommendations for a ratings organization analogous to the Better
Business Bureau, and a database on media producers in a format like Wikipedia.[172][173] Writing for
Fortune, Matthew Ingram agreed with the idea that Wikipedia could serve as a helpful model to improve
Facebook's analysis of potentially fake news.[174] Ingram concluded Facebook could benefit from a social
network form of fact-checking similar to Wikipedia's methods while incorporating debunking websites such
as PolitiFact.com.[174]
Others
Pope Francis, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, spoke out against fake news in an interview with
the Belgian Catholic weekly Tertio on 7 December 2016.[175] The Pope had prior experience being the
subject of a fake news website fiction during the 2016 U.S. election cycle, he was falsely said to support
Donald Trump for president.[175][98][99] Pope Francis said the singular worst thing the news media could do
was spreading disinformation and that amplifying fake news instead of educating society was a sin. He
compared salacious reporting of scandals, whether true or not, to coprophilia and the consumption of it to
coprophagy.[176][177][178][179] The Pope said that he did not intend to offend with his strong words, but
emphasized that "a lot of damage can be done" when the truth is disregarded and slander is spread.[177][179]
Academic analysis
Jamie Condliffe wrote that banning ad revenue from fraudulent sites was not aggressive enough action by
Facebook to deal with the problem, and did not prevent fake news from appearing in Facebook news feeds.
[37]
Dartmouth College political scientist Brendan Nyhan criticized Facebook for not doing more to combat
fake news amplification.[180] Indiana University computer science professor Filippo Menczer commented on
measures by Google and Facebook to deny fraudulent sites revenue, saying it was a good step to reduce
motivation for fraudsters.[181] Menczer's research team engaged in developing an online tool titled: Hoaxy
to see the pervasiveness of unconfirmed assertions as well as related debunking on the Internet.[182]
Zeynep Tufekci wrote critically about Facebook's stance on

fraudulent news sites, stating that fraudulent websites in Macedonia
profited handsomely off false stories about the 2016 U.S. election.
[183]
Tufecki wrote that Facebook's algorithms, and structure
exacerbated the impact of echo chambers and increased fake news
blight.[183] Merrimack College assistant professor of media studies
Melissa Zimdars wrote an article "False, Misleading, Clickbait-y and
Satirical 'News' Sources" in which she advised how to determine if a
Zeynep Tufekci has written that fraudulent source was a fake news site.[184] Zimdars identified
Facebook amplified fake news and strange domain names, lack of attribution, poor layout, use of all
echo chambers.
caps, and URLs ending in "lo" or "com.co" as red flags.[184] Zimdars
recommended checking the "About Us" page, and considering
whether reputable news outlets have reported the same story.[184]
Stanford University professors Sam Wineburg and Sarah McGrew authored a 2016 study analyzing students'
ability to discern fraudulent news from factual.[185][186] The study took place over a year-long period of time,
and involved a sample size of over 7,800 responses from university, secondary and middle school students
in 12 states within the United States.[185][186] They were surprised at the consistency with which students
thought fraudulent news reports were factual.[185][186] The study found 82% of students in middle school
were unable to differentiate between an advertisement denoted as sponsored content from an actual news
article.[187] The authors concluded the solution was to educate online media consumers to themselves behave
like fact-checkers and actively question the veracity of all sources.[185][186]
Scientist Emily Willingham has proposed applying the scientific method to fake news analysis.[188] She had
previously written on the topic of differentiating science from pseudoscience, and proposed applying that
logic to fake news.[188] She calls the recommended steps Observe, Question, Hypothesize, Analyze data,
Draw conclusion, and Act on results.[188] Willingham suggested a hypothesis of "This is real news", and then
forming a strong set of questions to attempt to disprove the hypothesis.[188] These tests included: check the
URL, date of the article, evaluate reader bias and writer bias, double-check the evidence, and verify the
sources cited.[188] University of Connecticut philosophy professor Michael P. Lynch said that a troubling
number of individuals make determinations relying upon the most recent piece of information they've
consumed.[31] He said the greater issue however was that fake news could make people less likely to believe
news that really is true.[31] Lynch summed up the thought process of such individuals, as "...ignore the facts
because nobody knows whats really true anyway.[31]
See also
Clickbait Filter bubble
Confirmation bias Information silo
Disinformation List of fake news websites
Echo chamber (media) Post-truth politics
Euromyth Selective exposure theory
Fake news by country Spiral of silence
Fallacy of composition Tribe (Internet)
False equivalence
Footnotes
a. Fortune magazine described the Foreign Policy Research Institute as: "a conservative think tank known for its
generally hawkish stance on relations between the U.S. and Russia"[58]
b. The Washington Post and the Associated Press described PropOrNot as a nonpartisan foreign policy analysis
group composed of persons with prior experience in international relations, warfare, and information technology
sectors.[13][14][15] Their spokesman, interviewed by Adrian Chen of the The New Yorker said they were composed
of government officials and tech company employees who were against Russian propaganda towards the U.S.[59]
c. FactCheck.org, a nonprofit organization and a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the Annenberg
School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania,[131] won a 2010 Sigma Delta Chi Award from the
Society of Professional Journalists.[132]
d. PolitiFact.com, run by the Tampa Bay Times,[133] received a 2009 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for its
fact-checking efforts the previous year.[133]
e. Snopes.com, privately run by Barbara and David Mikkelson, was given "high praise" by FactCheck.org, another
fact-checking website;[134] in addition, Network World gave Snopes.com a grade of "A" in a meta-analysis of fact-
checking websites.[135]
f. "The Fact Checker" is a project by The Washington Post to analyze political claims.[138] Their colleagues and
competitors at FactCheck.org recommended The Fact Checker as a resource to use before assuming a story is
factual.[136]
g. Created in September 2015, the Poynter International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) is housed within the St.
Petersburg, Florida-based Poynter Institute for Media Studies and aims to support the work of 64 member fact-
checking organizations around the world.[165][166] Alexios Mantzarlis, co-founder of FactCheckEU.org and former
managing editor of Italian fact-checking site Pagella Politica, was named director and editor of IFCN in
September 2015.[165][166]
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Further reading
Jamie Condliffe (15 November 2016), "Facebook's Fake-News Wikinews has related
Ad Ban Is Not Enough", MIT Technology Review, retrieved news: Wikinews
16 November 2016 investigates:
Cassandra Jaramillo (15 November 2016), "How to break it to Advertisements disguised
your friends and family that they're sharing fake news", The as news articles trick
Dallas Morning News, retrieved 16 November 2016 unknowing users out of
Craig Silverman; Lawrence Alexander (3 November 2016), money, credit card
"How Teens In The Balkans Are Duping Trump Supporters information
With Fake News", BuzzFeed, retrieved 16 November 2016
Ishmael N. Daro; Craig Silverman (15 November 2016), "Fake News Sites Are Not Terribly Worried
About Google Kicking Them Off AdSense", BuzzFeed, retrieved 16 November 2016
Craig Silverman (16 November 2016), "Viral Fake Election News Outperformed Real News On
Facebook In Final Months Of The US Election", BuzzFeed, retrieved 16 November 2016
Taylor, Adam (26 November 2016), "Before 'fake news,' there was Soviet 'disinformation' ", The
Washington Post, retrieved 3 December 2016
Andrew Weisburd, Clint Watts; JM Berger (6 November 2016), "Trolling for Trump: How Russia is
Trying to Destroy Our Democracy", War on the Rocks, retrieved 6 December 2016
External links
Guides to avoid fake news online
Wikimedia Commons has
media related to Fake news
Kim LaCapria (2 November 2016), "Snopes' Field Guide to websites.
Fake News Sites and Hoax Purveyors", Snopes.com,
snopes.com, retrieved 16 November 2016
Rachel Dicker (14 November 2016), "Avoid These Fake News Look up spamvertise in
Sites at All Costs", U.S. News & World Report, retrieved Wiktionary, the free
16 November 2016 dictionary.
Lori Robertson; Eugene Kiely (18 November 2016), "How to
Spot Fake News", FactCheck.org, Annenberg Public Policy Center, retrieved 19 November 2016
Jared Keller (19 November 2016), "This Critique of Fake Election News Is a Must-Read for All
Democracy Lovers", Mother Jones, retrieved 19 November 2016
Lance Ulanoff (18 November 2016), "7 signs the news you're sharing is fake", Mashable, retrieved
19 November 2016
Laura Hautala (19 November 2016), "How to avoid getting conned by fake news sites - Here's how
you can identify and avoid sites that just want to serve up ads next to outright falsehoods.", CNET,
Videos
Sreenivasan, Hari (17 November 2016), "How online hoaxes and fake news played a role in the
election", PBS NewsHour (video), retrieved 29 November 2016
"Fake News: How A Partying Macedonian Teen Earns Thousands Publishing Lies", NBC News
(video), 9 December 2016, retrieved 11 December 2016, "Exclusive: The 18-year-old, who lives in
the small Eastern European town of Veles, says he made at least $60,000 in the past six months by
mainly appealing to Donald Trump supporters."
Jenkins, Ciaran (8 December 2016), "How fake news from Macedonia affected the US Presidential
Election 2016", Channel 4 News (video), retrieved 11 December 2016, "Did you read a fake news
story during the US Presidential election? Well, it could have been written by a 16-year-old in
Macedonia. Channel 4 News' Ciaran Jenkins visits the village of Veles to investigate."
Silverman, Craig (9 August 2016), "How This Teen Tricked The Internet With Fake News", BuzzFeed
Video (video), retrieved 11 December 2016
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fake_news_website&oldid=764061269"
Categories: Criticism of journalism Deception Disinformation operations Fake news Internet fraud
Internet hoaxes Internet manipulation and propaganda Journalistic hoaxes News media manipulation
Propaganda in Russia Propaganda techniques Propaganda in the United States Propaganda websites
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Fake news website

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In 2015, the Swedish Security Service, Sweden's

the societal impact of "fake sites, bots, trolls".[8] U.S. election[22][23]

BuzzFeed News and The Guardian separately investigated and found

Internet Research Agency

In 2015, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe

Internet trolls shift focus to Trump

Adrian Chen observed a pattern in December 2015 where pro-Russian

U.S. intelligence analysis

Computer security company FireEye concluded Russia used social media as

India had over 50 million accounts on the smartphone instant

Indonesia and Philippines

Between October 1 and November 30, 2016, ahead of the Italian

2016 election cycle

Fraudulent stories during the 2016 U.S. presidential election popularized on

After the 2016 election, Republican politicians and conservative media

The Russian state-operated newswire RIA Novosti, known as Sputnik

Legislative and executive responses

False conspiracy theories and 2016 pizzeria attack

Fact-checking websites FactCheck.org,[c]

Google CEO comment and actions

Blocking fraudulent advertisers

Proposed technology tools

Zeynep Tufekci wrote critically about Facebook's stance on

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fake_news_website&oldid=764061269"

This page was last modified on 6 February 2017, at 21:03.

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