It purportedly undertook political investigative journalism, but is now primarily known (together with its editor Mark Watts) for its direct involvement in the false allegations of sexual abuse put forward by "Nick" (Carl Beech) in Operation Midland.
In articles by journalist Mark Conrad, Exaro became the first publication to report claims made by Carl Beech (under the pseudonym "Nick") that a paedophile ring composed of powerful individuals had abused children at Elm Guest House in Barnes in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
[4] False allegations of sex crimes and murder committed by the fictional paedophile ring made by Beech later became the basis for the Metropolitan Police's Operation Midland, a £2 million probe which closed in 2016 with no charges brought.
[11] In July 2011, a Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) expert told Exaro that the chances of a foreign military incursion into Syria to secure chemical weapons had risen to "more than 50 per cent".
The latter centres on the supposed 'Whitehall paedophile ring' and the lurid allegations against former Tory MP Harvey Proctor, and involves magnifying the slightest procedural development and tweeting like mad under the hashtag #VIPaedophile.
"[15] Barrister Matthew Scott, a consistent critic of Exaro's modus operandi, wrote on his blog that the site "has generated a poisonous atmosphere of outrage and hysteria in which wild and immensely hurtful accusations can be made and believed on the flimsiest of evidence; and that by publicising detailed allegations of paedophile orgies and murder it has risked destroying the prospect of fair trials either for victims or defendants.