/r/fakenews

Photograph via snooOG

A subreddit to highlight fake news stories, complete fact checks, and discuss the phenomenon of fake news.

/r/fakenews is for discussing and researching fake news articles, false claims being spread, and also examples of the mainstream media screwing up (so long as there's actual substance).

"During these critical months of the campaign, 20 top-performing false election stories from hoax sites and hyperpartisan blogs generated 8,711,000 shares, reactions, and comments on Facebook."

Fake news is a phenomenon that has morphed into a very powerful political tool during 2016. Fake news exists on a gradient from subtle mainstream news bias to the more blatant social media hoax stories that circulate quickly on the internet.

We're now able to get personalized services like never before. We can stream music and entertainment tailored specifically for our own tastes. It's becoming increasingly true that we can get the information we want tailored to our own world views regardless of how true the information is or how honest the sources are. This subreddit exists to discuss the ramifications of this new reality and confirm or debunk fake news stories. While we may like to think this is a partisan issue everyone should keep in mind that it is not.


Submission Guidelines

The following are examples of things for this subreddit:

  • A self-post where you research a fake news story
  • An article about the fake news phenomenon
  • Request for a fact check/debunk
  • Examples of fake news on social media
  • Highlighting false claims being spread online

Subreddit Rules
1) Do not violate Reddit's content policy.
2) No posting personal information.
3) Do not incite harassment.
4) Fake news isn't just any news you disagree with.


Submission Rules
We don't allow submissions from Infowars.com, RT.com, or dailymail.co.uk. Any submissions from these sites will be removed by the moderators.


Please report any violation of our subreddit rules. In the end, we rely on you, the users, to ensure this subreddit works. If you see something that violates these rules, Please Report It! If you have questions or concerns, please message us via the mod mail.


Other subreddits of interest:

/r/worldnews
/r/skeptic
/r/TopMindsofReddit
/r/enoughtrumpspam
/r/badhistory
/r/stormtroofers
/r/Full_news

/r/fakenews

8,853 Subscribers

5

I found a fake news website today. Very disturbing. 100% fictional news. Ponacost.com

I use some some news aggregators that feed me links to news articles on topics that interest me. Today it fed a link to a story about a California town that was taken over by crime.

I read the story, It was interesting. Lots of details. It named names. It quoted important people. It had a photo of the town. It discussed what might have caused the increase in crime and the impact on the town. So I decided do a little fact checking. It turns out that everything in the story in fake. The entire story is fiction. The only thing that is true is that there is state named California. And a county named Napa.

https://www.poncapost.com/a-small-town-in-california-has-suddenly-become-the-fourth-most-dangerous-in-the-state/

Here is what I found that was false:

  • The photo is of Emeryville, CA. That is next to Oakland. No where near Napa.
  • Harmony, CA is in San Louis Obisbo County, CA. Not in Napa County. It is not even a town. It is two buildings and doesn't even have a stop sign.
  • The sheriff of Napa County is not Thomas Baker.
  • There is no investigative reporter in Napa named John Lee.
  • There is no Harmony Harvest Festival
  • There is no Mayor Emily Jones because there is no city Harmony.  Emily Jones was the mayor of Eureka, California in 1929. Again, nowhere near Napa. And not currently alive.

I decided to complain to the editor. It got worse. Their "about us" on the masthead is blank. No names. No address. Nothing. What kind of newspaper has no masthead?

https://www.poncapost.com/about-us/

They have a fact checking policy. They claim they check the facts of their stories. Clearly they do not.

https://www.poncapost.com/fact-checking-policy/

Their editorial policy has misspellings.

https://www.poncapost.com/editorial-policy/

Now lets take a look at their news offerings. Lots of click bait types of articles. I'm going to pick one:

https://www.poncapost.com/a-small-florida-town-has-suddenly-become-the-states-second-ranked-murder-capital/

Now this article mentions a recent notorious murder. "... the murder of the Johnson family. In 2023, a home invasion resulted in the brutal killing of a family of four". Funny. I can't find anything about such a mass murder anywhere else. Not in Belle Glade. Not in Palm Beach County. It appears that they just made it up.

I am convinced that this news source is nothing but an LLM AI backed generator of stories. And it is getting its stories into the feeds of news aggregators. I've noticed that some of their content is getting picked up by other news channels seeking content.

This is scary. I detected the lies becuse I happen to know that Harmony is not near Napa. And I also recognize the Oakland Hills behind Emeryville. But how many other people outside of Central California would know that?

Perhaps this SubReddit can maintain a list of known fake news generators in a pinned post? Perhaps in a web robot consumable file format? That way news aggregators can reference it to blacklist such sites?

Thank you.

8 Comments
2024/06/17
03:02 UTC

0

Unbiased election poll

Don’t trust the mainstream media for the 2024 election polls. Here’s an unbiased and independent poll: https://www.presidentialpoll2024.com

Who gets your vote this election?

2 Comments
2024/05/15
13:23 UTC

0

I'm not convinced that Marilyn Monroe was murdered, but I do believe the facts around her death were most likely hidden from the public. This video has some key facts and a little fun quiz question about the rumours around her mysterious passing.

0 Comments
2024/05/03
14:48 UTC

1

Looking for realistic fake news vidéo made with IA.

Hi, I'm a student in human science and actually following a sociology of social practice on line. For our end semester project, we want to do a small study about what make people doubt or trust what they are watching on internet. We will basecally show a bunch of ppl fake and real news vidéo and ask them how trustfull they found each one of them and what make them think twice. I'm looking for 1 or 2 vidéos who are credible, in english or french, if possible about actual subject.

Hope you do well and thx for the advice !

0 Comments
2024/05/02
12:23 UTC

3

Fake archives of newspapers published within Australian state public libraries – Corruption & crimes concealed – the evidence ignored.

Australia has false records of newspapers published within Australian state public libraries. News articles published have been erased/deleted/removed or altered for the fake archives. Corruption and crimes related to events in South Australia (state) known to politicians, state and federal governments of both political parties, law enforcement authorities and news media are concealed. South Australia has been a Rupert Murdoch News Corp. newspaper publishing state monopoly since the 1950s when Murdoch owned his first newspaper, the ‘News’. City, metropolitan and regional newspapers are all owned by News Corp.

Evidence of the fake archives that conceal corruption is known to Australia’s state Independent Commissions Against Corruption (that are not independent), past and present attorneys general including Mark Dreyfus and the National Anti-Corruption Commission NACC, law enforcement authorities and news media, all of whom participate in concealing corruption by ignoring the evidence of the fake archives and the corruption that conceals crimes. The evidence can be viewed and understood by anyone prepared to consider it.

One of the South Australian events involving the corruption of law enforcement (Australian Securities and Investment Commission ASIC renamed from ASC) concerns billions of dollars of debt created by the bankruptcy of the taxpayer guaranteed State Bank of South Australia SBSA. All details of the debt are concealed assisted by ASIC/ASC and the fake archives of newspapers. Text and documents referred to below describe some of the crimes and corruption concealed and discloses some of the taxpayer debt created by the State Bank of SA that has never been publicly disclosed.

I am unable to attach documents to Reddit posts. My hacker can & has attached documents with my personal details to posts. My hacker has also deleted/hacked text from WordPress posts & email files.

I may be able to direct attention to documents indicating the facts of the fake archives of newspapers within Australian states public libraries by using filestackcontent.com websites - https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/FgQpKbPcR3WtprDPx3FA is a copy of Adelaide South Australia's News Corp's 'The Advertiser' newspaper with a news article headlined "Warning signs were there for more than 14 months" referring to the State Bank of South Australia SBSA bankruptcy & refers to news articles previously published headlined 'State Bank in loans setback; and '58 firms in State Bank web' & Our companies in the red - State Bank' that are 3 of many news articles that do not appear in the fake archives within Australian state public libraries. These missing newspaper archive refer to the corrupt accounting use of 'Off Balance Sheet' entities of SBSA to conceal bad debt for many years.

https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/Nf7xP5QwyGmInSzumhwL is a copy of a 2 October 1990 page 2 newspaper article of 'The Advertiser' newspaper headlined 'State Bank silent on mystery firm' referring to a company named 'Kabani'. It is the first and only ever news media mention of any 'Off Balance Sheet' company of the State Bank of SA. Never publicly disclosed details of bad debt related to Kabani and SBSA's joint ownership details with a bankrupt marina property developer can be viewed at

https://rjrbtsrupertsfirstnewspaper.wordpress.com/2023/12/30/australian-corruption-of-nacc-attorney-general-mark-dreyfus/

ASC media releases of 1993 https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/TltYbsTwTJuqg3C20x1q and 1995 https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/AkFLn8YzSHmPNDQMpvNX have been posted to WordPress

My reading of the those missing ASC/ASIC news articles was the only means by which I was aware of the information & sought a copy of the ASC/ASIC media releases posted to WordPress. Junior staff of the ASIC were helpful. https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/SgazbYlTSyagkR3X6dxy is a letter dated 4 March 2025 from an unidentified ASIC staff refusing to provide information related to ASC/ASIC corruption enabling the Commonwealth Bank & Bank of New Zealand to recover bad debt to the value of $46,342,199 from a bankrupt company Pro-Image Studios https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/c8xkFyfNRDy7tjbTkukG without the involvement of the bankruptcy court - a court file was 'lost' (replaced by the ASC & the banks) to achieve the desired result of overturning a previous decision.

https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/Tga0jaAwT4uEQ7DY1GOV is a copy of the 5 October 1989 front page of Adelaide's News Corp. afternoon daily tabloid format the 'News' with the headline "The man behind SA's great marina fiasco" referring to the bankruptcy of William Edward Turner who had debts and a Kabani ownership arrangement with the State Bank of SA that is described in WordPress posts, that has never been publicly disclosed to taxpayer guarantors of the State Bank of SA. Turner's bankruptcy file 1085 of 1990 Victoria started 6 July 1990 & ended 6 July 1993 - starting 9 months after the 5 October 1989 news article stating that he was bankrupt, in the financial years ending 30 June 1991- after SBSA's February 1991 disclosure of its bankruptcy announced with a front-page headline "Billion Dollar Bailout" that has since been removed/deleted from records of newspapers published.

https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/FiRkWjDyTxyxBSJRzqVX Is a copy of Adelaide SA’s News Corp.’s ‘The Advertiser’ newspaper published 11 February 1991 page 19 with the news article headlined “Riding hell for leather into trouble” referring to the announcement of the bankruptcy of the State Bank of SA, with the 2nd column line 7 “The bank’s silly foray into the National Safety Council of Victoria was just the beginning.”

This one sentence was the total of any news media mention of any NSCA Vic division debt to the State Bank of SA. The State Bank of SA had a bad debt loan of $400 million since 1986. (National Safety Council of Australia Victoria division as a Ponzi scheme fraud publicly exposed in March 1989. On 17 February 1989 the State Bank of SA had purchased $16053005-72 of NSCA Vic div. bad debt from Rothchild Australia Ltd. (RAL) 11 Feb 1991 https://cdn.filestackcontent.com/PtcXYh6RSGt4fbVbIl4R is a copy of an internet website referring to a judge’s decision over litigation and describing the State Bank of SA’ purchase of bad debt of $16053005-72 from Rothschild Australia Ltd. Bank.

State Bank of South Australia v. Rothschild Australia Limited & Ors., Supreme Court of Victoria, 10 August 1990

Questions to me are welcome. Questions are not welcome by attorney general Dreyfus and the National Anti Corruption Commission NACC.

1 Comment
2024/03/18
05:39 UTC

1

Crowdsourcing platform to fight fake news

The screenshots below illustrate how the user with the extension will see the alternate titles made by Remedia userssion

i have created a crowdsourcing platform that has a social media network and a Chrome extension that enables users to create and join groups. Users can create exposing articles and link them to fake news pages, by doing that they will help others because the extension will show a warning and allow the user to read the exposed article.

By installing the Remedia Chrome extension the article exposing the truth will be visible on the page itself. So if you come across a fake news article the extension will warn you by showing the related articles written by Remedia users.

The Chrome extension allows you to substitute clickbait or misleading titles with your own, and because this is a crowdsourcing social network, others will be able to see your work and you will be able to see others as well.

The Chrome extension can be found at https://chromewebstore.google.com/detail/remedia/lhikhmhnjmdjgioifdodkdnjigaaodph

When you install the extension you will see other people's contributions and if you log in, you will be able to contribute also.

The social network is https://remedia.social

The below screenshots illustrate how the user with the extension will see the alternate titles made by Remedia users

The platform also allows users to:

  • Dislike certain aricles
  • Write opinions about articles, products, people...
  • Write claim reviews

All content written by users, when matched with a page, will be visible to the user by the Remedia Chrome extension

If you have questions feel free to ask.. or just install the extension and have fun

P.S. The screenshots are in Croatian :-)

https://preview.redd.it/e4ttj8sz3pjc1.png?width=2271&format=png&auto=webp&s=7bd9d91ecc506009789e17b8e18df5ac068e8596

https://preview.redd.it/kencxep14pjc1.png?width=1726&format=png&auto=webp&s=99c27ed5b5a267f2252d2abc810901aaac805002

0 Comments
2024/02/20
07:53 UTC

1

Welcome to a wonderful world of disinformation

0 Comments
2024/02/16
16:43 UTC

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