The Briefing:
Be a Misinformation expert.
Misinformation hurts our democracy.
The Misinformation industry generates a toxic cocktail of conspiracy theories and outright lies. It stokes fear, hate, racism, religious intolerance and misogyny. There is compelling evidence to suggest it can swing elections. And it has led to the degradation and coarsening of our public sphere.
Misinformation sites are largely funded by online advertising, often paid for by mainstream brands who have no idea where their money is going; they just pay an agency or "programmatic advertising" service which places ads to fulfill a pre-determined target profile. Algorithms automatically allocate adverts to sites regardless of any dangerous and offensive content.
As Misinformation sites are one step removed from their advertisers, this advantages websites that prioritise "clickbait" - stories that generate the most traffic, regardless of the truth behind those stories.
When enough advertisers pull their business from a misinformation site they often have to rely on donations from their readers. This presents a new target: we call on donation platforms to kick off sites that violate their codes of conduct policy. When they don't, we call on big organisations to move to more ethical donation platforms.
Alexa, show me Misinformation:
Here's a list of our target sites with some examples of their fake and malicious content.
THE CANARY
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The Canary regularly publishes misinformation to justify antisemitism.
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It promotes conspiracy theories about Syrian war crimes.
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They exploited the suicide of a junior doctor for clicks.
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Their writers have suggested the Equality and Human Rights Commission is "pro-Israel", have peddled antisemitic conspiracy theories and their editor has been boycotted by the National Union of Journalists for potentially endangering the safety of a journalist.
POLITICALITE

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Politicalite whips up Islamophobia and demonises migrants.
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They promote anti-vaccination conspiracies.
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One of their writers was filmed verbally abusing an anti-Brexit campaigner.
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Their political editor is an Islamophobe.
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They platformed a "yellow vest" activist who verbally abused MPs.
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The former leader of the Brexit Party had to step down over racist comments made on Politicalite.
EVOLVE POLITICS

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Evolve Politics gives a platform to prominent conspiracy theorists.
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They shared a video that sought to absolve the Nazis of the blame for the Holocaust.
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They tried to link the Salisbury Novichock attack to Israel.
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They have promoted the idea that Israel is behind ISIS.
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They have promoted claims that Bashar al-Assad's war crimes were "staged".
UNITY NEWS NETWORK

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Unity News Network is a misinformation site that consistently singles out Jewish Philanthropist George Soros, a popular target of antisemites.
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UNN was instrumental in spreading a fake story about Jo Swinson's husband during the 2019 General Election.
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They promote articles from the neo-Nazi Veterans Today website.
DORSET EYE
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Dorset Eye accused Rachel Riley of "working for (or with) the Israeli government" and warned of "another Jo Cox moment".
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They accused the Chief Rabbi of being a "modern day Judas", a "paid agent of Israel" and threatened "another Kristalnacht".
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They share cartoons depicting the Chief Rabbi scheming with Boris Johnson, comparing Israel to the Nazis and propagating the myth that Israel is secretly behind wars across the world.
WESTMONSTER

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Westmonster promoted hateful figures like Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson), was obsessed with George Soros and stokes fear about migrants.
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It was founded by Arron Banks, who shared fake videos during the EU referendum to stoke fear about migrants.
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In two years, they shared 359 anti-migrant stories.
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With the launch of the Brexit party, they effectively became a propaganda channel for Nigel Farage.
TR NEWS

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TR News is a misinformation site set up by far-right celebrity Stephen Yaxley-Lennon (aka Tommy Robinson), originally to support his campaign for the European Parliament.
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One article on his site claims without proof that counter-protestors at his rallies "are just paid thugs".
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TR News hosts videos presented by Avi Yemini, who said of the Christchurch attacker, "I can see how the reality of Europe pushed him over the edge."
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They used misinformation to try to suggest the Australian bushfires were not caused by climate change.
REBEL NEWS

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Rebel Media is a Canadian site that hired Tommy Robinson to pump out Islamophobic content.
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They published a video of Robinson describing British Muslims as "enemy combatants".
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Rebel Media also publishes content from Katie Hopkins, who left her role at the Mail after two libel cases.
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They posted a video on their site entitled: "10 things I hate about Jews".
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When editor Ezra Levant lost a libel case, the judge said he has "a reckless disregard for the truth".
BREITBART

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Breitbart is a misinformation site once run by ex-Trump adviser Steve Bannon.
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They have promoted debunked climate denialism.
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They helped to fuel the conspiracy theory about President Obama's birthplace.
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They have spread misinformation about Muslim "mobs" setting fire to churches.
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They publish misogynist, misleading headlines.