Entire Network Of Fake News Websites Vanishes In Wake Of Mandalay Bay Hoax
An entire network of fake news websites designed to look like local news outlets has vanished without a trace. Most likely it happened in the fall-out of a hoax from a month ago about a security guard at the Mandalay Bay hotel in Las Vegas supposedly being arrested as the "second shooter" after the mass shooting event on October 1st…
Facebook Blocks Another Chris Blair Satire Site
Visitors to Freedum Junkshun, one of Chris Blair's (in)famous satirical fake news sites, reportedly can no longer share links from the site on Facebook. We tested it ourselves and were greeted by this message: It is quite strange how a page that doesn't even exist and which returns a 404 error can be considered spam: http://freedumjunkshun.com/thislinkdoesnotexist. Christopher Blair is a…
Fake News Site The Last Line Of Defense Resurrected Following Feud With Snopes.com Writer
Fake/satire website The Resistance: The Last Line Of Defense has announced they are online again in an article titled: "Infamous 'Fake News' Site Resurrected By Russian Trolls". Recently Facebook blocked users from posting links to the site forcing it to adopt a new domain name (nunadisbereel.com). That name now seems to be abandoned (along with the original thelastlineofdefense.org) in favor…
Fake News Site Apologises For Publishing Real Facts, Pulls Deserter Story
Recently we criticized an article by fake/satire website Freedum Junkshun titled "BREAKING: Black Soldier Killed In Niger Was A Deserter" for using the real name and real image of a soldier who died in Niger (Sergeant La David T. Johnson) and accusing him of being a deserter without the slightest shred of evidence. The website has now pulled this article…
Fake News Website Network Uses Fake Google Captcha To Get Real Facebook Shares
If you've been on the internet for a while you are probably familiar with 'Turing tests' on various websites: little challenges to prove you are an actual human interacting with a site and not a bot intent on spamming a comment form or on the prowl for personal data. Most of these puzzles take the form of a sequence of…
Facebook Blocks Satirical Fake News Site The Resistance: The Last Line Of Defense
Facebook has blocked the sharing of links from the infamous satirical fake news website "The Resistance: The Last Line Of Defense" as of a few hours ago. Lead Stories has confirmed the block is real by trying to post a link to one of their recent hoaxes about the Seattle Seahawks potentially being banned from the NFL (which we debunked…
Is Fake News Superstar Paul Horner Dead? (Update: Confirmed)
The problem with being one of the most widely known writers of fake news stories (that often include your own name) is that nobody will believe a story about you anymore. So when we began seeing online reports about the death of fake news superstar Paul Horner last week our first reaction was sceptical. It seems the initial report came…
Watch: Mark Zuckerberg Talks Russian Election Interference And Facebook's Next Steps
Mark Zuckerberg went live on Facebook to discuss Russian election interference and Facebook's next steps to protect the integrity of the democratic process. Watch the full video below: As you can see, the video has racked up almost a million views in about an hour and it is expected to be watched many more times.…
No Hoax: Myth-fighter Snopes gets cash boost in court fight
A federal judge ordered Proper Media, LLC, to stop withholding ad revenue from Snopes.com while the court considers who legally controls the hoax-busting website. Snopes parent company Bardav has been struggling to survive since Proper Media, which was contracted to manage the site's publishing stopped passing the money along in a power struggle between rival stockholders. "This is an important…
Fake News King Paul Horner Launches New Website Named My Phoenix Daily
Paul Horner is a fake news writer and comedian who is said to have influenced the U.S. Presidential Election with his hoaxes. And a few hours ago he revealed a new website named My Phoenix Daily (archived here) via a tweet on a fake Donald Trump twitter account he created last year: Great new site, the best ever, a site…
Running List Of Fake Celebrity Quotes on USA Daily News Posts
The fake news website USA Daily News Posts (usadailynewsposts.com), also known as "American President Donald J. Trump", has made it a habbit to post fake celebrity quotes and then asking their readers if they "support this" or if the celebrity in question should be arrested, deported or what have you. Often the posts contain errors against basic English, for example…
Fake News: Muslim Mayor Did NOT Outlaw Christmas 2017 Within City Limits
Fake news site As American As Apple Pie posted an article titled "Muslim Mayor Outlaws Christmas 2017 Within City Limits" which claimed: The Muslim Mayor of Blairsville, a small suburb of Dearborn, Michigan, has declared by executive action that Christmas decorations, music or festivities of any kind in view of the public is "offensive to the majority of residents and…
Rise Of The Machines: Twitter Bot Debunks Fake News Generated By Another One
OK, we give up. We thought that we here at Lead Stories were clever with our Trendolizer engine to quickly find emerging fake news stories to debunk. But we must admit we've been beaten. Some bright person came up with the genius idea to have a Twitter bot automatically generate fake news by slapping random conspiracy phrases together into more…
Fake News Website YourNewsWire Renames Itself As NewsPunch
As of a few hours ago all links to articles on the notorious fake news website yournewswire.com seem to be getting redirected to newspunch.com. The move has not been officially announced on the site as far as we can tell. It seems likely the move is an effort to dodge various fake news filters on social media and in search…
Fact Check: Aldi Cashier Refusing To Ring Up Alcohol
Twitter user @BelfastBrit0151 posted following tweet and image: @AldiUK Well I won't be shopping in Aldi anymore. everyone should retweet this. pic.twitter.com/Oko64gla7T -- Ethan (@BelfastBrit0151) August 19, 2017 The image in the tweet (archived here) shows a till in an Aldi supermarket with a printed sign affixed to it that reads "NO ALCOHOL IS ABLE TO BE SERVED ON THIS…
Obama's Post-Barcelona Attack Tweet Got More Traction Than Trump's
In the wake of today's terror attack with a van in Barcelona both current president Trump and former president Obama sent out tweets expressing solidarity. And even though Obama's tweet was sent out about 75 minutes after Trump's it has already gotten more likes and retweets: Michelle and I are thinking of the victims and their families in Barcelona. Americans…
Snopes.com Locked Out Of Advertising Revenue And Requesting Donations
Legendary fact checking website Snopes.com just posted an appeal to their site asking for donations via a GoFundMe page. Apparently the company or person they contracted with to run their website is holding it hostage and is refusing to pass on the advertising revenue. Right now it looks like there are no ads running on the site at all. The…
Forbidden Facts: Fighting Fake News With Fake Fake News
On June 15th and 16th Lead Stories/Trendolizer was present at a TechForum event in Brussels where fact-checkers and journalists from several European countries came together to discuss fact-checking, debunking and the "fake news" phenomenon. One of the more interesting ideas to come out of a brainstorming session was the realization that the people liking and sharing fake news on Facebook…
Fake News Apocalypse: How A Liberal Troll Took Down Several Major Fake News Websites Using Copyright Law
In a delicious twist of irony a famous satirical fake news website manages to take down or seriously hamper dozens of "real" fake news sites using nothing but copyright law. Here at Lead Stories we have a long history of debunking articles originating from "The Resistance: The Last Line of Defense", a website that constantly publishes fake news and hoaxes…
NOT Fake News? Liberal Troll Responsible For Tucker Carlson Death Hoax Admits Who Paid Him
This is too funny: notorious hoax website The Resistance: The Last Line of Defense published an article that is (for once) mostly true: "BREAKING: Liberal Troll Responsible For Tucker Carlson Death Hoax Admits Who Paid Him". It is a reaction to the recent Tucker Carlson death hoax we debunked earlier as one of the first fact checking websites to do…