Fake news websites in the United States
Fake news websites target United States audiences by using disinformation to create or inflame controversial topics such as the 2016 election.
[3] Most notable in the media are the many websites that made completely false claims about political candidates such as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump,[4] as part of a larger campaign to gain viewers and ad revenue or spread disinformation.
[6][7] Fake news websites deliberately publish hoaxes, propaganda, and disinformation to drive web traffic inflamed by social media.
[16] Many sites directly targeted the United States both because the U.S. is a high-value ad consumer and extraordinary claims are more likely to be believed during a political crisis.
[13] The New York Times noted in a December 2016 article that fake news had previously maintained a presence on the Internet and within tabloid journalism in years prior to the 2016 U.S.
When linked to from other sites, usually social media, having an extraordinary story title played a large part in tricking users who cannot tell if the article is real or not.
[18][19] Facebook's Vice President of News Feed says the social media giant defines clickbait "as headlines that withhold significant amounts of information and mislead the user".
Because it is difficult to determine what content exactly is fake news, the website uses a data set to calculate the likelihood of a headline being clickbait.
The site published only fake stories, usually with a realistic clickbait headline, albeit with story-details containing enough flaws that the "discerning reader would likely notice" it was false.
Glen Bolger, a partner at Public Opinion Strategies, a leading Republican polling firm, predicted that "If you like clean, positive, issue-oriented campaigns, you're going to be disappointed.
"[33] A 2019 article in USA Today stated that "[In the 2020 election,] with so many people running for president and so many bad actors trying to spread disinformation about them, it will be difficult to determine what is 'fake news' and who created it.
[15] Professor Philip N. Howard of the University of Oxford found that about one half of all news on Twitter directed at Michigan prior to the election was junk or fake.
Criticized for failing to stop fake news from spreading on its platform during the 2016 election, Facebook thought that the problem could be solved by engineering, until May 2017 when it announced plans to hire 3,000 content reviewers.
[45] Fraudulent stories during the 2016 U.S. presidential election popularized on Facebook included a viral post that Pope Francis and actor Denzel Washington had endorsed Donald Trump.
[48] One prominent fraudulent news story released after the election—that protesters at anti-Trump rallies in Austin, Texas, were "bused in"—started as a tweet by one individual with 40 Twitter followers.
[54] In early 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".
[61] 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.
[64][65][66] Chacon later told Brent Bambury of CBC Radio One program Day 6 that he was so shocked at readers' ignorance he felt it was like an episode from The Twilight Zone.
[64] In a follow-up piece Chacon wrote as a contributor for The Daily Beast after the 2016 U.S. election, he concluded those most susceptible to fake news were consumers who limited themselves to partisan media outlets.
[42] In an interview with The New York Times, Cameron Harris of Annapolis, Maryland, explains how he profited from creating fake news on his website, ChristianTimesNewspaper.com, that included a false story claiming that premarked ballots for Mrs. Clinton were being held in boxes at a warehouse in Ohio.
[89] One concern noted by researchers of the study is that democracy is at risk of devolving due to the ways in which falsehoods about civic issues can quickly spread with a growing ease of access.
[89] Elementary school teachers have decided to challenge results from the Stanford study by showing children the importance of not being deceived by what is fake.
Fifth grade teacher Scott Bedley in California created his own version of "Simon Says", in which students are given three minutes to read an article and decide whether a news story is true or false.
[90] Teachers are promoting these learning techniques with the hope that such strategies and skills will stay with their students' for the rest of their adolescent and adult lives.
[92] Jennifer Coogan, editor in chief of education startup Newsela, has partnered with the American Press Institute to help combat fake news consumption in addition to its regular literacy classes.
This admission comes after increased scrutiny from lawmakers in a broader backlash against Silicon Valley as well as a Senate hearing for social media company executives.
[99][19] Members of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee traveled to Ukraine and Poland in March 2016 and heard from officials in both countries on Russian operations to influence their affairs.
[100] King recalled the legislators were informed by officials from both Ukraine and Poland about Russian tactics of "planting fake news stories" during elections.
[102] Amid worries about fake news and disinformation being spread by Russia, representatives in the U.S. Congress called for more action to track and counter alleged propaganda emanating from overseas.
[107][108] 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.
