Fake news website

This article is about intentionally fraudulent websites. For satirical websites, see News satire. For broader coverage of this topic, see Fake news.

Fake news websites (also referred to as hoax news websites)[1][2] are websites on the Internet that deliberately publish fake news—hoaxes, propaganda, and disinformation purporting to be real news—often using social media to drive web traffic and amplify their effect.[3][4][5][6] Unlike news satire, these websites deliberately seek to be perceived as legitimate and taken at face value, often for financial or political gain.[7][8][4] Fake news websites monetize their content by exploiting the vulnerabilities of programmatic ad trading,[9] which is a type of online advertising in which ads are traded through machine-to-machine auction in a real-time bidding system.[10]

Fake news websites have promoted political falsehoods in India,[11][12] Germany,[13][14] Indonesia and the Philippines,[15] Sweden, Mexico,[16][17] Myanmar,[18] and the United States.[19][20] Many sites originate in, or are promoted by, Russia,[3][21] or North Macedonia among others.[22][23] Some media analysts have seen them as a threat to democracy.[14] In 2016, the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs 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.[16] Sweden's Ministry of Defence tasked its Civil Contingencies Agency with combating fake news from Russia.[16] 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 claims.[15] German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned of the societal impact of "fake sites, bots, trolls".[14]

Fraudulent articles spread through social media during the 2016 U.S. presidential election,[19][20] and several officials within the U.S. Intelligence Community said that Russia was engaged in spreading fake news.[24][25] Computer security company FireEye concluded that Russia used social media to spread fake news stories[26] as part of a cyberwarfare campaign.[27] Google and Facebook banned fake sites from using online advertising.[28][29] 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.[30] U.S. President Barack Obama said a disregard for facts created a "dust cloud of nonsense".[31] Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) Alex Younger called fake news propaganda online dangerous for democratic nations.[32]

  1. ^ Bartolotta, Devin (9 December 2016), "Hillary Clinton Warns About Hoax News On Social Media", WJZ-TV, retrieved 11 December 2016
  2. ^ Wemple, Erik (8 December 2016), "Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg says people don't want 'hoax' news. Really?", The Washington Post, retrieved 11 December 2016
  3. ^ a b Weisburd, Andrew; Watts, Clint (6 August 2016), "Trolls for Trump - How Russia Dominates Your Twitter Feed to Promote Lies (And, Trump, Too)", The Daily Beast, retrieved 24 November 2016
  4. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference snopesfieldguide was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ a b Lewis Sanders IV (11 October 2016), "'Divide Europe': European lawmakers warn of Russian propaganda", Deutsche Welle, retrieved 24 November 2016
  6. ^ Neudert, Lisa-Maria; Howard, Philip; Kollanyi, Bence (16 July 2019). "Sourcing and Automation of Political News and Information During Three European Elections". Social Media + Society. 5 (3): 205630511986314. doi:10.1177/2056305119863147.
  7. ^ Leyva, Rodolfo (2020). "Testing and unpacking the effects of digital fake news: on presidential candidate evaluations and voter support". AI & Society. 35 (4): 970. doi:10.1007/s00146-020-00980-6. S2CID 218592685.
  8. ^ Chen, Adrian (2 June 2015). "The Agency". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 25 December 2016.
  9. ^ Diaz Ruiz, Carlos A. (2024-10-30). "Disinformation and fake news as externalities of digital advertising: a close reading of sociotechnical imaginaries in programmatic advertising". Journal of Marketing Management: 1–23. doi:10.1080/0267257X.2024.2421860. ISSN 0267-257X.
  10. ^ Braun, Joshua A.; Eklund, Jessica L. (2019-01-02). "Fake News, Real Money: Ad Tech Platforms, Profit-Driven Hoaxes, and the Business of Journalism". Digital Journalism. 7 (1): 1–21. doi:10.1080/21670811.2018.1556314. ISSN 2167-0811.
  11. ^ Vij, Shivam (27 May 2020). "India's anti-Muslim fake news factories are following the anti-Semitic playbook". ThePrint. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
  12. ^ Sahoo, Niranjan. "How fake news is complicating India's war against COVID-19". ORF. Retrieved 3 June 2020.
  13. ^ Connolly, Kate; Chrisafis, Angelique; McPherson, Poppy; Kirchgaessner, Stephanie; Haas, Benjamin; Phillips, Dominic; Hunt, Elle; Safi, Michael (2 December 2016). "Fake news: an insidious trend that's fast becoming a global problem". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 25 December 2016.
  14. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference merkelwarns was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference MozurScott was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference concernoverbarrage was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ Kragh, Martin; Åsberg, Sebastian (5 January 2017). "Russia's strategy for influence through public diplomacy and active measures: the Swedish case". Journal of Strategic Studies. 40 (6): 773–816. doi:10.1080/01402390.2016.1273830. S2CID 157114426.
  18. ^ Cite error: The named reference sheerafrenkel was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  19. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference pbsrussianpropaganda was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  20. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference afprussianpropaganda was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  21. ^ Cite error: The named reference thenewyorkeradrianchen was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  22. ^ Cite error: The named reference tynan was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  23. ^ Cite error: The named reference bengilbert was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  24. ^ Cite error: The named reference watkins was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  25. ^ Frederick, Kara (2019). "The New War of Ideas: Counterterrorism Lessons for the Digital Disinformation Fight". Center for a New American Security. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  26. ^ Merlo, Carlos (2017), "Millonario negocio FAKE NEWS", Univision Noticias
  27. ^ Cite error: The named reference strohm was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  28. ^ Cite error: The named reference belfast was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  29. ^ Cite error: The named reference shanika was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  30. ^ Cite error: The named reference facebookisturning was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  31. ^ Cite error: The named reference zuckerbergsays was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  32. ^ Cite error: The named reference mi6 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).