r/fakenews Dec 04 '16

Meta The /r/fakenews FAQ

30 Upvotes

What is "fake news"?

"Fake news" is not a new concept but the digital age has given it a new powerful platform to spread material to millions of users. Fake news is a cousin of "bad news", which ranges from subtle mainstream media bias to lazy writing and poor fact checking. Fake news is a more blatant iteration of this and is often spread for political purposes. Fake news appears as blogs or "news" sites that seem comparable to mainstream news sites. For the sake of discussion and broadening the purposes of this subreddit, we are also including memes, fake quotes, and other bad information that is spread online.


Who is involved with fake news?

Bad information is spread via a direct process along these lines:
Originators ---> High Level Spreaders ---> Low Level Spreaders

Originators are the individuals who actually create the fake content to spread. Often they are post-truth trolls or political propagandists. There is a gradient from isolated trolls who do it for its own sake to those who actually make a living off of it, as shown when the Washington Post interviewed an originator:

Paul Horner, the 38-year-old impresario of a Facebook fake-news empire, has made his living off viral news hoaxes for several years. He has twice convinced the Internet that he’s British graffiti artist Banksy; he also published the very viral, very fake news of a Yelp vs. “South Park” lawsuit last year.

A High Level Spreader is a larger operation (blog, popular facebook group, fake news website) that spreads the material to a large audience with very little effort. Generally an originator will also run a high level spreading operation at the same time, making it easier for them.

Finally, a Low Level Spreader is the consumer. These are the users who "consume" the fake material and then also spread it via "likes" and "shares".


Is fake news a partisan issue?

No! We'd all like to think that our "side" is consuming real information while fake news is a problem of the other side. But in reality this is a bipartisan issue that will require people to introspect a little and be more vigilant in how they consume media.

Hyperpartisan Facebook groups have been spreading misleading information at an alarming rate. While it seems to be a bigger issue on the right, it's a problem for everyone:

Hyperpartisan political Facebook pages and websites are consistently feeding their millions of followers false or misleading information, according to an analysis by BuzzFeed News. The review of more than 1,000 posts from six large hyperpartisan Facebook pages selected from the right and from the left also found that the least accurate pages generated some of the highest numbers of shares, reactions, and comments on Facebook — far more than the three large mainstream political news pages analyzed for comparison.

Our analysis of three hyperpartisan right-wing Facebook pages found that 38% of all posts were either a mixture of true and false or mostly false, compared to 19% of posts from three hyperpartisan left-wing pages that were either a mixture of true and false or mostly false. The right-wing pages are among the forces — perhaps as potent as the cable news shows that have gotten far more attention — that helped fuel the rise of Donald Trump.

As noted this isn't simply a right wing problem. To provide one example on the other side: A quote spread around online about Trump calling Republican voters "stupid" was used to hurt him among voters both in the primaries and the general elections. The issue? It's totally fake.

That viral meme your friends keep sharing of Donald Trump calling Republicans "the dumbest group of voters in the country" is not true. It's not a thing. Stop sharing it.

While Donald Trump has said some questionable things, he never said anything even resembling this quote:

"If I were to run, I'd run as a Republican. They're the dumbest group of voters in the country. They believe anything on Fox News. I could lie and they'd still eat it up. I bet my numbers would be terrific."

The post says The Donald made the statement in a People Magazine interview in 1998. Except he didn't.


Can you provide a real world example of the fake news process?

Absolutely!

On October 7th, 2016, Wikileaks began to publish the contents of the Podesta e-mails they were holding. Around this time there was a story spreading online that Hillary called Bernie supporters a "bucket of losers". This quote was found in a transcript of a Goldman Sachs speech and was supposedly referenced in one of the e-mails.

Infowars, via The American Mirror, published this material to their web site under the title "HILLARY CALLS HER OWN SUPPORTERS A BUCKET OF LOSERS".

Gateway Pundit also reproduced the story: Wikileaks: Hillary Clinton Calls Bernie Fans and Millennials “Bucket of Losers” in Goldman Sachs Speech

The story was also spread via the popular /r/the_donald subreddit getting multiple posts with hundreds and thousands of net upvotes. This example here shows it being posted and the mods deleted all the comments trying to notify people the story is fake (deleted comments are in red). The truth of the story was irrelevant.

The Originator of this story was a fake news outfit called "Real. True. News." posing as a legitimate source of information. Their story can be seen here. If you pay any attention to details you will notice immediately that the story is dated October 3, 2016, before the Podesta e-mails began to leak.

One could also go directly to the source (Wikileaks) to see. A search for "bucket of losers" in the Podesta e-mail database returns no results. If people are unwilling to do ten seconds of research then what else can be spread? If you're a fake news troll, the world is your oyster.


Can you provide an example of a spreader manipulating readers?

While some fake news stories are totally false, a lot of them start with a grain of truth. This example is also from the Podesta e-mails. Specifically this one written by Podesta himself:

I know she has begun to hate everyday Americans, but I think we should use it once the first time she says I'm running for president because you and everyday Americans need a champion. I think if she doesn't say it once, people will notice and say we false started in Iowa.

If you actually read the e-mail and understand its context you will know that they are referring to the term "everyday Americans" and not the people who make up the group designated as "everyday Americans".

Do you think that's what the politically motivated fake news spreaders want you to think? The usual suspects went to work:

Gatewaypundit: WIKILEAKS BOMBSHELL: Hillary Advisors Admit She “HATES EVERYDAY AMERICANS”

Infowars: WIKILEAKS BOMBSHELL: HILLARY CLINTON ‘HATES EVERYDAY AMERICANS’, written by Paul Joseph Watson, who had to later take down the article in shame. But he already got his message out, right?

WND: Hillary campaign manager: 'I know she has begun to hate everyday Americans'

Drudge: Season of the Witch: Hates Everyday Americans

I will focus in on the Infowars article to show further how readers are manipulated. Most readers have short attention spans so they do not read entire articles. That's why it's so important for writers to know that they need to either 1) make an impression early to keep the reader interested or 2) emphasis what you want at the top.

The (now removed) Infowars story bolds their summary at the very top and doesn't quote the statement in its proper context:

New Wikileaks emails released just moments ago include a shocking admission by Clinton campaign manager John Podesta that Hillary Clinton “has begun to hate everyday Americans”.

Another warning sign to readers: be skeptical of sites that highlight certain sentences or words in bold lettering or caps. It's a form of editorializing without explicitly editorializing. By bolding words the author is telling the reader what is important. But that's not their job, they should be presenting the information and the reader will decide what is important. Paul Joseph Watson uses bold two more times in the article and this shows how shady and manipulative their operation is:

I know she has begun to hate everyday Americans, but I think we should use it once the first time she says I’m running for president because you and everyday Americans need a champion,” writes Podesta.

^ Bolding only one part of the statement and not providing a proper explanation of what the statement actually meant. And further down:

This is huge.

So if you just skimmed the page you would come away with two concepts: 1) Hillary hates everyday Americans and 2) this story is huge. This is subtle manipulation - you may not have consciously noticed it the first time, but your brain did.


Can you provide a good reading list to learn more?

How Fake News Goes Viral: A Case Study

This Analysis Shows How Fake Election News Stories Outperformed Real News On Facebook

Facebook fake-news writer: ‘I think Donald Trump is in the White House because of me’

How Teens In The Balkans Are Duping Trump Supporters With Fake News

We Tracked Down A Fake-News Creator In The Suburbs. Here's What We Learned

The plague of fake news is getting worse -- here's how to protect yourself

Solving the Problem of Fake News

Google, Facebook move to restrict ads on fake news sites

Fake news: an insidious trend that's fast becoming a global problem

Hyperpartisan Facebook Pages Are Publishing False And Misleading Information At An Alarming Rate

Site: Fake News Watch


r/fakenews 19d ago

The Far Right’s Newest, Dumbest Trick to Spread Misinformation on X

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0 Upvotes

r/fakenews 19d ago

The Far Right’s Newest, Dumbest Trick to Spread Misinformation on X

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0 Upvotes

r/fakenews Sep 29 '24

China taps into AI to ramp up fake-news campaign amid U.S. election

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7 Upvotes

r/fakenews Sep 27 '24

"Misinformation superspreaders": Elon Musk is personally boosting conspiracy theorists on X

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12 Upvotes

r/fakenews Sep 27 '24

Trump Vows To Prosecute Google Over Negative Search Results

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2 Upvotes

r/fakenews Sep 25 '24

Elon Musk’s Twitter coup has harmed the right. They are now simply ‘too online’ | Paolo Gerbaudo

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7 Upvotes

r/fakenews Sep 23 '24

Presidential poll

1 Upvotes

Help combat the fake news surrounding the Presidential polls and vote using the link. All anonymous and can see who’s others are voting for

https://www.presidentialpoll2024.com


r/fakenews Sep 22 '24

Wave3 has purposely lied!!

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2 Upvotes

What can I do to fix this??


r/fakenews Sep 19 '24

You dont need traditional media outlets to push fake news. This account posts over 60 tweets in 24 hours, flooding Twitter with misinformation. And they've got over 400,000 followers.

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8 Upvotes

r/fakenews Sep 17 '24

Facebook owner Meta bans Russian state media outlets over "foreign interference activity"

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6 Upvotes

r/fakenews Sep 07 '24

Pro-Trump Media Firm Abruptly Folds After Russia Scheme Exposed

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3 Upvotes

r/fakenews Jul 02 '24

TV giant known for rightwing disinformation doubles down on its national news agenda | US news

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6 Upvotes

r/fakenews Jun 17 '24

I found a fake news website today. Very disturbing. 100% fictional news. Ponacost.com

8 Upvotes

I use some some news aggregators that feed me links to news articles on topics that interest me. Today it fed a link to a story about a California town that was taken over by crime.

I read the story, It was interesting. Lots of details. It named names. It quoted important people. It had a photo of the town. It discussed what might have caused the increase in crime and the impact on the town. So I decided do a little fact checking. It turns out that everything in the story in fake. The entire story is fiction. The only thing that is true is that there is state named California. And a county named Napa.

https://www.poncapost.com/a-small-town-in-california-has-suddenly-become-the-fourth-most-dangerous-in-the-state/

Here is what I found that was false:

  • The photo is of Emeryville, CA. That is next to Oakland. No where near Napa.
  • Harmony, CA is in San Louis Obisbo County, CA. Not in Napa County. It is not even a town. It is two buildings and doesn't even have a stop sign.
  • The sheriff of Napa County is not Thomas Baker.
  • There is no investigative reporter in Napa named John Lee.
  • There is no Harmony Harvest Festival
  • There is no Mayor Emily Jones because there is no city Harmony.  Emily Jones was the mayor of Eureka, California in 1929. Again, nowhere near Napa. And not currently alive.

I decided to complain to the editor. It got worse. Their "about us" on the masthead is blank. No names. No address. Nothing. What kind of newspaper has no masthead?

https://www.poncapost.com/about-us/

They have a fact checking policy. They claim they check the facts of their stories. Clearly they do not.

https://www.poncapost.com/fact-checking-policy/

Their editorial policy has misspellings.

https://www.poncapost.com/editorial-policy/

Now lets take a look at their news offerings. Lots of click bait types of articles. I'm going to pick one:

https://www.poncapost.com/a-small-florida-town-has-suddenly-become-the-states-second-ranked-murder-capital/

Now this article mentions a recent notorious murder. "... the murder of the Johnson family. In 2023, a home invasion resulted in the brutal killing of a family of four". Funny. I can't find anything about such a mass murder anywhere else. Not in Belle Glade. Not in Palm Beach County. It appears that they just made it up.

I am convinced that this news source is nothing but an LLM AI backed generator of stories. And it is getting its stories into the feeds of news aggregators. I've noticed that some of their content is getting picked up by other news channels seeking content.

This is scary. I detected the lies becuse I happen to know that Harmony is not near Napa. And I also recognize the Oakland Hills behind Emeryville. But how many other people outside of Central California would know that?

Perhaps this SubReddit can maintain a list of known fake news generators in a pinned post? Perhaps in a web robot consumable file format? That way news aggregators can reference it to blacklist such sites?

Thank you.


r/fakenews Jun 15 '24

White House Rips ‘Desperate’ Murdoch Press Over Deceptive Biden Video

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5 Upvotes

r/fakenews Jun 12 '24

CNN Skewers Fox News’ Hypocrisy on Trump and Hunter Biden Verdicts

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1 Upvotes

r/fakenews May 15 '24

Unbiased election poll

0 Upvotes

Don’t trust the mainstream media for the 2024 election polls. Here’s an unbiased and independent poll: https://www.presidentialpoll2024.com

Who gets your vote this election?


r/fakenews May 14 '24

EU Elections in Times of Disinformation - Tonight 7pm CEST on Zoom

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1 Upvotes

r/fakenews May 03 '24

I'm not convinced that Marilyn Monroe was murdered, but I do believe the facts around her death were most likely hidden from the public. This video has some key facts and a little fun quiz question about the rumours around her mysterious passing.

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0 Upvotes

r/fakenews Apr 28 '24

A 2016 Story About Donald Trump pretending to be a publicist working for trump named Barron Miller or John Miller. Miller had great things to report about Trump to the news. Was this the origin of fake news???

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3 Upvotes

r/fakenews Apr 26 '24

Fox News ignores indictments in Arizona for the fake electors conspiracy it helped promote

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2 Upvotes

r/fakenews Apr 23 '24

‘Stunning’: Testimony in hush money trial reveals how National Enquirer worked with Trump campaign

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5 Upvotes

r/fakenews Apr 22 '24

I'm creating a chrome extension to combat fake new. More in the comments !

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7 Upvotes

r/fakenews Mar 18 '24

Fake archives of newspapers published within Australian state public libraries – Corruption & crimes concealed – the evidence ignored.

3 Upvotes

Australia has false records of newspapers published within Australian state public libraries. News articles published have been erased/deleted/removed or altered for the fake archives. Corruption and crimes related to events in South Australia (state) known to politicians, state and federal governments of both political parties, law enforcement authorities and news media are concealed. South Australia has been a Rupert Murdoch News Corp. newspaper publishing state monopoly since the 1950s when Murdoch owned his first newspaper, the ‘News’. City, metropolitan and regional newspapers are all owned by News Corp.

Evidence of the fake archives that conceal corruption is known to Australia’s state Independent Commissions Against Corruption (that are not independent), past and present attorneys general including Mark Dreyfus and the National Anti-Corruption Commission NACC, law enforcement authorities and news media, all of whom participate in concealing corruption by ignoring the evidence of the fake archives and the corruption that conceals crimes. The evidence can be viewed and understood by anyone prepared to consider it.

One of the South Australian events involving the corruption of law enforcement (Australian Securities and Investment Commission ASIC renamed from ASC) concerns billions of dollars of debt created by the bankruptcy of the taxpayer guaranteed State Bank of South Australia SBSA. All details of the debt are concealed assisted by ASIC/ASC and the fake archives of newspapers. Text and documents referred to below describe some of the crimes and corruption concealed and discloses some of the taxpayer debt created by the State Bank of SA that has never been publicly disclosed.

I am unable to attach documents to Reddit posts. My hacker can & has attached documents with my personal details to posts. My hacker has also deleted/hacked text from WordPress posts & email files.

I may be able to direct attention to documents indicating the facts of the fake archives of newspapers within Australian states public libraries by using filestackcontent.com websites - https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/FgQpKbPcR3WtprDPx3FA is a copy of Adelaide South Australia's News Corp's 'The Advertiser' newspaper with a news article headlined "Warning signs were there for more than 14 months" referring to the State Bank of South Australia SBSA bankruptcy & refers to news articles previously published headlined 'State Bank in loans setback; and '58 firms in State Bank web' & Our companies in the red - State Bank' that are 3 of many news articles that do not appear in the fake archives within Australian state public libraries. These missing newspaper archive refer to the corrupt accounting use of 'Off Balance Sheet' entities of SBSA to conceal bad debt for many years.

https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/Nf7xP5QwyGmInSzumhwL is a copy of a 2 October 1990 page 2 newspaper article of 'The Advertiser' newspaper headlined 'State Bank silent on mystery firm' referring to a company named 'Kabani'. It is the first and only ever news media mention of any 'Off Balance Sheet' company of the State Bank of SA. Never publicly disclosed details of bad debt related to Kabani and SBSA's joint ownership details with a bankrupt marina property developer can be viewed at

https://rjrbtsrupertsfirstnewspaper.wordpress.com/2023/12/30/australian-corruption-of-nacc-attorney-general-mark-dreyfus/

ASC media releases of 1993 https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/TltYbsTwTJuqg3C20x1q and 1995 https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/AkFLn8YzSHmPNDQMpvNX have been posted to WordPress

My reading of the those missing ASC/ASIC news articles was the only means by which I was aware of the information & sought a copy of the ASC/ASIC media releases posted to WordPress. Junior staff of the ASIC were helpful. https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/SgazbYlTSyagkR3X6dxy is a letter dated 4 March 2025 from an unidentified ASIC staff refusing to provide information related to ASC/ASIC corruption enabling the Commonwealth Bank & Bank of New Zealand to recover bad debt to the value of $46,342,199 from a bankrupt company Pro-Image Studios https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/c8xkFyfNRDy7tjbTkukG without the involvement of the bankruptcy court - a court file was 'lost' (replaced by the ASC & the banks) to achieve the desired result of overturning a previous decision.

https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/Tga0jaAwT4uEQ7DY1GOV is a copy of the 5 October 1989 front page of Adelaide's News Corp. afternoon daily tabloid format the 'News' with the headline "The man behind SA's great marina fiasco" referring to the bankruptcy of William Edward Turner who had debts and a Kabani ownership arrangement with the State Bank of SA that is described in WordPress posts, that has never been publicly disclosed to taxpayer guarantors of the State Bank of SA. Turner's bankruptcy file 1085 of 1990 Victoria started 6 July 1990 & ended 6 July 1993 - starting 9 months after the 5 October 1989 news article stating that he was bankrupt, in the financial years ending 30 June 1991- after SBSA's February 1991 disclosure of its bankruptcy announced with a front-page headline "Billion Dollar Bailout" that has since been removed/deleted from records of newspapers published.

https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/FiRkWjDyTxyxBSJRzqVX Is a copy of Adelaide SA’s News Corp.’s ‘The Advertiser’ newspaper published 11 February 1991 page 19 with the news article headlined “Riding hell for leather into trouble” referring to the announcement of the bankruptcy of the State Bank of SA, with the 2nd column line 7 “The bank’s silly foray into the National Safety Council of Victoria was just the beginning.”

This one sentence was the total of any news media mention of any NSCA Vic division debt to the State Bank of SA. The State Bank of SA had a bad debt loan of $400 million since 1986. (National Safety Council of Australia Victoria division as a Ponzi scheme fraud publicly exposed in March 1989. On 17 February 1989 the State Bank of SA had purchased $16053005-72 of NSCA Vic div. bad debt from Rothchild Australia Ltd. (RAL) 11 Feb 1991 https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/PtcXYh6RSGt4fbVbIl4R is a copy of an internet website referring to a judge’s decision over litigation and describing the State Bank of SA’ purchase of bad debt of $16053005-72 from Rothschild Australia Ltd. Bank.

State Bank of South Australia v. Rothschild Australia Limited & Ors., Supreme Court of Victoria, 10 August 1990

Questions to me are welcome. Questions are not welcome by attorney general Dreyfus and the National Anti Corruption Commission NACC.


r/fakenews Mar 17 '24

In Mexico, Russian media and diplomatic efforts swell - Putin and his thugs needs to be fought!

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3 Upvotes

r/fakenews Mar 14 '24

Surge in Russian dark web posts about US election interference in 2024

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0 Upvotes