The morning after a hotly-contested midterm election resulted in Republicans resoundingly losing control of the House, United States President Donald Trump held a rambling, bizarre press conference in which he alternately took credit for Republicans ma Go to site post…»
An annual caravan heading from Central America to the southern United States border to seek asylum has been beset by rumors, misinformation, and dramatic disinformation during the 2018 election cycle.
Participants in the annual event are generally fro Go to site post…»
On November 3th, 2018, just days before the United States held hotly-contested midterm elections, rumors appeared of a billboard by the side of a Missouri interstate that featured United States President Donald Trump’s face with a strange, slight Go to site post…»
On October 25th, 2018, as bots and paid trolls pushed talking points on social media about a caravan of people from Honduras on their way to Mexico’s border with the United States to turn themselves in to seek asylum, the Judicial Watch blog published a shocking story about seven children who were saved from human […]
On October 30th, 2018, three days after a Pennsylvania white supremacist stormed a Pittsburgh synagogue with guns and murdered eleven people during a service and four days after a Florida man was arrested for mailing a series of glass-packed pipe bombs to public figures, United States President Donald Trump spoke out at length not against […]
In the final days of October 2018, after a series of glass-packed pipe bombs were delivered to high-profile critics of United States President Donald Trump, rumors ran wild about who the suspect was and what he wanted.
Few of these theories were organi Go to site post…»
In October 2018, an image floating around the internet caused a stir. The photograph appeared to show something statistically implausible, if not impossible — a perfectly rectangular iceberg like a tabletop, serenely circling Antarctic waters: Iceberg floating in Antarctica is perfect rectangle | https://t.co/uqJjOnWrqT pic.twitter.com/7lNUMQ4xwM — RTÉ News (@rtenews) October 25, 2018 Although the oddly-shaped […]
In October 2018, an image floating around the internet caused a stir. The photograph appeared to show something statistically implausible, if not impossible — a perfectly rectangular iceberg like a tabletop, serenely circling Antarctic waters:
Icebe Go to site post…»
As a group of desperate women, men, and children traveled north from Central America to try to turn themselves in at the United States border in the hopes of receiving asylum, disinformation and smears about the group and their motives flew thick and fast: An image shared by Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice […]
As a group of desperate women, men, and children traveled north from Central America to try to turn themselves in at the United States border in the hopes of receiving asylum, disinformation and smears about the group and their motives flew thick and f Go to site post…»
As a caravan of thousands of hopeful asylum-seekers from Central America continued to swell as the annual pilgrimage entered Mexico, so did rumors about them in the United States. One such rumor appeared on October 21, 2018, just after the group left Guatemala and entered Mexico: It appears that the migrant caravan, which has been […]
As a caravan of thousands of hopeful asylum-seekers from Central America continued to swell as the annual pilgrimage entered Mexico, so did rumors about them in the United States.
One such rumor appeared on October 21, 2018, just after the group left G Go to site post…»
Russian president Vladimir Putin criticized the United States in his annual address to the nation in October 2018, saying that American influence in the world has irrevocably waned. Left-leaning political news site AmericanIndependent.com reported on his comments in a story that was later picked up by Shareblue.com: Speaking about the position of the U.S. on […]
Russian president Vladimir Putin criticized the United States in his annual address to the nation in October 2018, saying that American influence in the world has irrevocably waned.
Left-leaning political news site AmericanIndependent.com reported on h Go to site post…»
Weeks before the 2018 United States’ midterm elections, propaganda from across the political spectrum flew thick and fast. Some of it contained grains of truth, while other stories were completely made up, such as a particularly lazy cut-and-paste meme that appeared in mid-October: The meme asks rhetorically, without citation or supporting evidence: Were any of you aware […]
Weeks before the 2018 United States’ midterm elections, propaganda from across the political spectrum flew thick and fast. Some of it contained grains of truth, while other stories were completely made up, such as a particularly lazy cut-and-pas Go to site post…»
In late October 2018, as the hideous story of journalist and United States resident Jamal Khashoggi‘s disappearance and suspected brutal murder at the behest of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince continued to unfold, the Trump administration and its allies appeared to brush off any sense of urgency about ongoing investigations. “My assessment from these meetings is that […]
In late October 2018, as the hideous story of journalist and United States resident Jamal Khashoggi‘s disappearance and suspected brutal murder at the behest of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince continued to unfold, the Trump administration and Go to site post…»
A hideous story unspooled before the international media in October 2018, when Saudi Arabian journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi — who had been living in Washington, D.C. after fleeing his home country a year before due to persistent death threats in response to his criticism of its government — abruptly vanished. On Monday, sources told CNN […]
A hideous story unspooled before the international media in October 2018, when Saudi Arabian journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi — who had been living in Washington, D.C. after fleeing his home country a year before due to pers Go to site post…»
A photograph of a deer riddled with skin tumors appeared on social media in October 2018 with a description that appeared to be a quote, but without any citation or link: A deer that became riddled with tumors from eating plants sprayed with Monsanto’s Roundup. It seems fairly common. This description is inaccurate, as a […]
A photograph of a deer riddled with skin tumors appeared on social media in October 2018 with a description that appeared to be a quote, but without any citation or link:
A deer that became riddled with tumors from eating plants sprayed with Monsanto&# Go to site post…»
The United States’ 2018 midterm elections approached with far more fanfare than is normal for what is usually a relatively sleepy electoral affair, including an unusual focus on voter disenfranchisement. Stories of people discovering that they were suddenly not eligible to vote and and other voter suppression tactics appeared over and over again: In Georgia, a coalition of […]
The United States’ 2018 midterm elections approached with far more fanfare than is normal for what is usually a relatively sleepy electoral affair, including an unusual focus on voter disenfranchisement.
Stories of people discovering that they we Go to site post…»
As the 2018 midterms approached in the United States, the national conversation turned more and more toward the right to vote — and whether all Americans are truly able to exercise that right. The conversation took a new turn just weeks before the November 6th election, when the Supreme Court declined to overturn a controversial […]
As the 2018 midterms approached in the United States, the national conversation turned more and more toward the right to vote — and whether all Americans are truly able to exercise that right.
The conversation took a new turn just weeks before the N Go to site post…»
October 2018 was, like the months immediately preceding it, a seemingly endless march of stressful news stories and increasing political tensions globally as elections loomed in countries around the world. That naturally led a subsection of internet regulars to seek out more uplifting, simple stories, preferably those involving rescuing cute animals. The Daily Mail got in on […]
A story about a woman cheerfully embarking on her 27th straight abortion hit social media in October 2018, shocking readers who learned about Elena Travis, the 34-year-old med school student with an unusual hobby (but a heart of gold): The historic operation was performed at the Sacramento Street Health Center and required Elena Travis, 34, […]
When Hurricane Michael slammed into Mexico Beach, Florida on October 10th, 2018, the massive storm caused as-yet untold amounts of damage, leveling homes for miles: Amid images of survivors and the aftermath, the usual hurricane hoaxes began to appear, like this one: Caption: “Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport – Panama City Beach, FL”The post was […]
In October 2018, a warning appeared and made its way around the usual internet circles to warn against eating meat from deer afflicted with “bovine tuberculosis.” The warning was accompanied by a rather unappetizing photograph of a lesion-studded hunk of meat that showed what people should avoid: This warning (and the accompanying photograph) is legitimate, […]
Pop superstar Taylor Swift — once a darling of the far-right and alt-right crowds because of her “Aryan goddess” looks and their own fevered imaginations — broke a years-long policy of silence on political matters in October 2018 to endorse a political party on her Instagram account: I’m writing this post about the upcoming midterm elections […]
LaCroix sparkling water has had something of a moment, but anything popular comes with detractors. The fruity, low-calorie beverage met its own in October 2018 in the form of a class-action lawsuit that claims, among other things, that the drink contains ingredients used in cockroach insecticide. Chicago-based law firm Beaumont Costales also slammed LaCroix for false […]
A viral video making the social media rounds on October 4th, 2018 shows President Donald Trump carefully ascending the stairs to Air Force One on the tarmac in Minneapolis, Minnesota — with a piece of paper stuck to the back of his left shoe, then pausing at the top and waving before disappearing into the […]
In early October 2018, the usual purveyors and pushers of disinformation were anxious to take advantage of the controversy surrounding Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh to ride the ad revenue wave from whatever satire or clickbait they could think up. Most of that centered around various outlandish rumors surrounding his multiple accusers, but at least […]
Testing for a new cellular phone alert system (the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System, also known as IPAWS) began on October 3rd, 2018, with a tone and a message sent across mobile networks. The grumbling began almost immediately, as startled or irritated Americans reacted to the unsolicited (but anticipated) test, but the griping turned […]
In early October 2018, many people in the United States and abroad were closely watching the twists and turns around a Supreme Court nomination as multiple women accused the nominee of committing or abetting sexual assault. Almost immediately, bots, trolls, and useful idiots picked up on the controversy, muddying the waters with rumors, gossip, and […]
The days following a September 27th, 2018 hearing before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee, in which Palo Alto University professor and Stanford research psychologist Dr. Christine Blasey Ford testified that Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh violently assaulted her during a party more than three decades before, swirled with increasingly bizarre stories about a grand conspiracy. […]
As the United States debated putting Brett Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court despite multiple assault allegations, rumors began to fly about a hearing the previous day, including a bombshell that purportedly appeared in the Wall Street Journal: WSJ: Mitchell advised Republicans that to continue questioning Kavanaugh she was required by her oath in Arizona to […]
On the eve of a scheduled hearing for Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, the California professor who has credibly accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her at a party in 1982, what looked like a potential bombshell story appeared on social media: Senate Judiciary Rs release a Kavanaugh investigative summary that includes: -an […]
In order to boost circulation and rake in more advertising money, hoax and satire sites will sometimes re-run some of their older work hoping to catch clicks while the topics of their stories are once again relevant. This is a common practice with many media sites, but satirical or fake stories can wind up getting […]
