Fake News

NBC News reports: Google has banned two far-right websites from its advertising platform after research revealed the tech giant was profiting from articles pushing unsubstantiated claims about the Black Lives Matter protests. The two sites, ZeroHedge and The Federalist, will no longer be able to generate revenue from any advertisements served by Google Ads. A Google spokesperson said in an …

NBC News reports: One of the largest publishers of coronavirus disinformation on Facebook has been banned from the platform for using content farms from Macedonia and the Philippines, Facebook said on Friday. The publisher, Natural News, was one of the most prolific pushers of the viral “Plandemic” conspiracy video, which falsely claimed that the coronavirus is part of an elaborate …

Texas Monthly reports: On Friday, Ted Cruz flew to Dallas for a haircut. He hadn’t been looking particularly shaggy, but as hair salons have become the latest front in the culture war, Cruz—never one to miss an opportunity to declare which side he’s on—invited photographers to join him before he donned a face mask and a leopard-print smock for his …

We’re going to see a lot of more of these: Infowars host Owen Shroyer — the organizer of an April 18 in-person rally at the state Capitol in Austin, Texas, to protest coronavirus restrictions — is using Twitter and the company’s streaming platform Periscope to promote the event. While Twitter banned accounts for Infowars and its head Alex Jones in …

Media Matters reports: Disreputable right-wing conspiracy theorist Jim Hoft published a conspiratorial article about a deceased CDC scientist, apparently not realizing the scientist had died in 2018. Hoft has largely been using his outlet The Gateway Pundit to defend President Donald Trump’s handling of the novel coronavirus outbreak. On April 14, Hoft published an article at the Gateway Pundit with …

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Media Matters reports: The #filmyourhospital TikTok video with the most views as of the afternoon of April 3 comes from Owen Shroyer, a host on Infowars, an outlet that has already been banned from most major social media platforms. In the video — whose caption encourages people to “Take Part In The #filmyourhospital Takedown Of The Fake News Media” — …

NBC News reports: Twitter is experimenting with adding brightly colored labels directly beneath lies and misinformation posted by politicians and public figures, according to a leaked demo of new features sent to NBC News. Twitter confirmed that the leaked demo is one possible iteration of a new policy to target misinformation it plans to roll out March 5. In this …

Jared Holt reports at Right Wing Watch: Kaitlin Bennett, a correspondent for the conspiracy theory outlet Infowars and employee of the far-right outlet Liberty Hangout, appeared on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends First” program Wednesday morning, where she asked the president to support conservatives on college campuses. Bennett’s appearance on Fox News came after she attempted to make a video …

CBS News reports: The financial website Zero Hedge is now barred from Twitter after publishing an article relaying a conspiracy theory that a Chinese scientist might be to blame for the coronavirus outbreak. Zero Hedge on Friday wrote that Twitter had notified the site that it had violated the social media platform’s “rules against abuse and harassment.” That followed a …

Buzzfeed News reports: Facebook has taken down an ad from the conservative organization PragerU that contained misinformation about deadly wildfires in Australia — but only took the action days after a formal fact-checking review was completed. The incident shows that while the social media giant says it is working to remove misinformation about the fires, it is continuing to accept …

Politico reports: Social media companies from Facebook to YouTube are failing to stop people from setting up fake accounts, buying false online followers and promoting inauthentic digital content, according to a report published Friday by a NATO-accredited group. The findings — based on analysts purchasing social media manipulation tools and then testing how the companies responded — stand in stark …

The Daily Beast reports: A former staff member at Alex Jones’s far-right conspiracy site Infowars has admitted to making up stories for Jones about the threat of Shariah law within the U.S. Writing for The New York Times, Josh Owens expressed his regret for helping Jones spread Islamophobic misinformation. The former Infowars video editor said that he made up lies …

From the homocon fake news site Gateway Pundit: President Trump is too good for the Democrats. He has an ‘America First’ agenda which the traitorous Democrats and elites despise. It’s time that we Americans stand and call this what it is. This is another Democrat attempt to remove a President through any means necessary. It is seditious and treasonous. The …

USA Today reports: As the final votes trickled in during last week’s Kentucky gubernatorial election, a network of automated Twitter accounts suddenly sprang into action. They spread misinformation about the election being rigged, according to the CEO of a company that tracks political misinformation on social media. Gideon Blocq, the founder and CEO of VineSight, told The Courier Journal his …

Politico reports: False news reports that attack U.S. politicians have been viewed more than 150 million times on Facebook since the beginning of 2019, according to an analysis published Wednesday that points to a growing threat of deception swamping next year’s elections. The analysis, from the activist group Avaaz, highlights how misinformation — often targeting political figures like House Speaker …

Heavy.com reports: Kelvin Whelly is the U.S. Marine who says he was paid by Senator Elizabeth Warren to have an affair with her in 2018. Whelly, 25, was brought into the spotlight by right-wing activists Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman at a press conference on October 3. Wohl has previously admitted that he promotes false news if it helps President …

Public Information reports: The “Police Lives Matter” Facebook page accumulated over 170,000 fans, with viral content that reached more Facebook users than some of the largest media outlets. The page purported to be run by U.S. police officers, with cops posting about the “first dayshift of my career with a K9” or being “brand new dad.” What these posts did …

Reuters reports: Twitter has continued a crackdown on what it considers improper content by removing more than 10,000 accounts for spreading political misinformation and unrest. According to a company blog post, most of the accounts were engaged in fomenting political dissent through the spread of false information. It said many of the accounts in the UAE, for example, “were often …

Jared Holt reports at Right Wing Watch: Alex Jones, the conspiracy theorist proprietor of Infowars, and his attorneys were denied an appeal regarding a lawsuit that alleges Infowars broadcast defamatory comments regarding the father of a child murdered in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. The Texas Court of Appeals has ordered Infowars to “pay all costs” related to …