Analysis

Fake News Website YourNewsWire Renamed NewsPunch (Again) -- Possibly To Avoid Filters

YourNewsWire used to be one of the most notorious websites spreading fake news, often by using bits and pieces of real news articles from other websites to create new articles... [Read the full story]
BBC Interviews Christopher Blair And Maarten Schenk in "The Faker and The Fact Checker"

Recently the BBC World Service's "Trending" programme did a two part story about Christopher Blair, the liberal troll and internet hoaxer well known to anybody who has been following Lead... [Read the full story]
Satirical Fake News Writer Christopher Blair Announces Midterm Election Moratorium

Readers of this site are probably aware that some of the content found on Macedonian fake news websites is often copied directly from the satirical sites and Facebook pages of... [Read the full story]
Fake ABC News Website Taken Down After DMCA Complaint -- Already Replaced One Day Later By New Fake News Site

A story about protesters vandalizing Brett Kavanaugh's house to the tune of $11,000 in damages went viral about four days ago and was first debunked by Lead Stories. It originated... [Read the full story]
Is The Fake News Generator Back In Business? -- It Took a Single Dash and $12 To Evade Filters

Less than two weeks ago we reported on a network of prank websites centered around thefakenewsgenerator.com being blocked as spam by Facebook. But now it seems the site is gearing... [Read the full story]
Reign of "New Fake News King" Already At An End? The Fake News Generator Blocked By Facebook

Recently a rash of new viral fake news stories started turning up on Facebook, all from sites associated with thefakenewsgenerator.com, a site run by a man named Justin Hook. He... [Read the full story]
Lead Stories and Factmata Announce Collaboration In Fight Against Fake News

COLORADO SPRINGS/BRUSSELS/LONDON -- Fact checking website Lead Stories (leadstories.com) and artificial intelligence startup Factmata (factmata.com) are happy to announce they will be collaborating in the fight against fake news by... [Read the full story]
Lead Stories and Unfakery Announce Collaboration In Fight Against Fake News

COLORADO SPRINGS/BRUSSELS/HOUSTON -- Fact checking website Lead Stories (leadstories.com) and the fakery education and debunking Facebook page Unfakery (Facebook.com/Unfakery) are happy to announce they will be collaborating in the fight... [Read the full story]
Is Fake News Website YourNewsWire Being Throttled To Death By Facebook?

Regular readers of this site are doubtlessly familiar with notorious fake news website YourNewsWire.com. Over the years we have debunked countless stories from it, and we are not the only... [Read the full story]
UPDATE: Now Restored - Christopher Blair's Satirical Fake News Website America's Last Line of Defense Blocked For Spamming By Facebook

Another one of Christopher Blair's websites bites the dust. Lead Stories just learned that links to any article on the website "America's Last Line of Defense" are now considered "spam"... [Read the full story]
Exclusive: Fake News Website Owner Responsible For Michael J. Fox Death Hoax Denies Phishing Allegations

On Sunday August 5, 2018 a fake news website using the URL yahoonews-us.com and a logo from Yahoo! News ran a death hoax about actor Michael J. Fox. Lead Stories... [Read the full story]
Fake News Site Pushing Michael J. Fox Death Hoax Marked As Unsafe By Google (Along With Lead Stories Debunk!)

Yesterday Lead Stories reported on a death hoax involving actor Michael J. Fox which was published by a site pretending to be Yahoo! News: Fake News: Beloved Actor And Back... [Read the full story]
Fake News: Infowars And Alex Jones Have NOT Been Permanently Banned From Facebook (Yet?)

Were Infowars and Alex Jones permanently banned from Facebook? That remains to be seen. Infowars writer Paul Joseph Watson claimed on Twitter the ban that took down their pages on... [Read the full story]
Not Fake News: Facebook suspends conspiracy theorist & InfoWars host Alex Jones

From the "about damn time" department" comes this trending report that is not fake. Facebook moved against the personal page of InfoWars creator Alex Jones. We know it is true... [Read the full story]
Lead Stories Launches YouTube Channel With Automatically Generated Videos Of All Fact Checks

If you have ever visited YouTube you may have noticed news articles are being stolen by shady YouTube channels uploading videos in which a robot voice reads out the text... [Read the full story]
The Inside Scoop On How Lead Stories Got Serial Plagiarist Shawn Rice Busted By BuzzFeed

Earlier today Craig Silverman of BuzzFeed broke the news that business and marketing website Bussiness2Community had deleted over 6000 articles written by Shawn Rice (brother of the site's founder Brian... [Read the full story]
Newest Site From 'Ghana' Fake News Network Copies Christopher Blair's Footer

About three weeks ago Lead Stories reported on a network of fake news websites apparently centered around Ghana in Africa that was responsible for several huge death hoaxes. After our... [Read the full story]
Paul Horner's Old Website Taken Over By Vietnamese Spammer Stealing Fact Checks From Snopes

Newsexaminer.net, a website that used to be run by Paul Horner before the fake news superstar died last year has apparently been taken over by a spammer from Vietnam who... [Read the full story]
Global Fake News Network Responsible For Dozens of Death Hoaxes Shuts Down After Ghana Connections Revealed

Forget Macedonia, the real capital of fake news might just be Accra in Ghana On April 17, 2018 former First Lady Barbara Bush passed away but a full day earlier... [Read the full story]
Christopher Blair AKA Busta Troll Starts Several New Trolling Websites (And A Porn Site Network)

Regular readers of Lead Stories know we've been following the exploits of Christopher Blair for quite some time now. From taking over right wing Facebook pages with hordes of goats... [Read the full story]
American Troll: John Prager Takes Us Inside Christopher Blair's Secret Troll Cave (Part 1/2)

Readers of Lead Stories know we've been following the work of Christopher Blair (featured in the Boston Globe today by coincidence) for quite some time now. For those of you... [Read the full story]
Why Lead Stories Debunks Satire Stories

We sometimes get asked by readers why we bother fact checking and debunking stories that were clearly meant as satire and which are properly labeled as such by the sites... [Read the full story]
Looming Crisis As Experts Warn The World Is Running Out Of Facts To Check

Experts have warned a crisis is imminent as the world is running out of facts to check. A recent study by the Federal Institute for Statistics on Hoaxes (F.I.S.H.) estimated... [Read the full story]
Fake News: Oilsjt Analytica Does NOT Actually Guess Your Name

Can the website Oilsjt Analytica really guess your name just based on the answers you give to a few questions? Many internet users were stumped today by the website that... [Read the full story]
Defunct Fake News Website NCScooper Is Back As "Gish Gallop"

Remember the Nevada County Scooper? It was a satirical fake news website that disappeared somewhere in 2017 but before it went away it was responsible for such fake story titles... [Read the full story]
Lead Stories Now Tackling Fake News Faster Through Automation

You may have noticed we've upped the tempo a bit at Lead Stories in the past few days, posting more stories per day than we used to. And you may... [Read the full story]
Forget Russian Bots: Fake Native Americans Are Using Russian Characters To Avoid Fake News And Plagiarism Detectors

Compare following two headlines: Thе rеаsоn аrmy hеlіcоptеrs аrе nаmеd аftеr nаtіvе trіbеs wіll mаkе yоu smіlе The reason Army helicopters are named after native tribes will make you smile... [Read the full story]
EUvsDisinfo Publicly Retracts Disinformation Labels After Lawsuit Threats And Political Pressure

The website of EUvsDisinfo, a project set up by the East StratCom Taskforce of the European Union to fight pro-Kremlin disinformation, has published a public retraction (archived here) on the... [Read the full story]
BREAKING: Dutch Parliament Approves Motion Calling To Disband EUvsDisinfo

The Dutch parliament has approved a motion today calling for the EU to disband the EUvsDisinfo project, a part of the East StratCom Taskforce of the European Union set up... [Read the full story]
Facebook Appears To Be Down, Fake News Sites Hardest Hit

Reports are coming in from all over the world that a major outage is happening at Facebook. According to DownDetector.com the outages seem to be concentrated in Western Europe and... [Read the full story]

Analysis

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Most read

Fake News: Woman Did NOT Sue Samsung For $1.8M, Cell Phone NOT Stuck Inside Her Vagina

Fake News: Pedophile Who (Allegedly) Raped 9-Year-Old Girl Did NOT Have Penis Chopped Off Completely By Angry Father

Fake News: French Army Not Getting Ready to Stop Demonstration of Yellow Vests

Fake News: African Migrant Did NOT Make Mother And Three Daughters Pregnant Before Running Away

Fake News: No 12 (or 123) Dead At 'Gilets Jaunes' Protests in France

Fake News: Theresa May Did NOT Quit With Immediate Effect After Poor Performance -- Metro Journalist Used Misleading Headline

Fake News: Obese Couple Did NOT Make Three-Story Fall After Floor Collapses During Sex

Fake News: Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo Did NOT Announce Vin Diesel Will Be Banned From Entering City Starting 2022

Retired Postman DOES NOT Have Over 1,300 Illegitimate Children

Fake News: Doctors Who Discovered Cancer Enzymes In Vaccines NOT All Found Murdered

Recent

Fake News: No 12 (or 123) Dead At 'Gilets Jaunes' Protests in France

Fake News: African Migrant Did NOT Make Mother And Three Daughters Pregnant Before Running Away

Fake News: French Army Not Getting Ready to Stop Demonstration of Yellow Vests

Fake News: Pedophile Who (Allegedly) Raped 9-Year-Old Girl Did NOT Have Penis Chopped Off Completely By Angry Father

Fake News: Theresa May Did NOT Quit With Immediate Effect After Poor Performance -- Metro Journalist Used Misleading Headline

Fake News: Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo Did NOT Announce Vin Diesel Will Be Banned From Entering City Starting 2022

Fake News: Hells Angels Did NOT Sue Canadian Government For $2 Billion Revenue Loss Over Legalization of Marijuana

Fake News: Northern Ireland NOT to Be Renamed 'West Belgium' in Brexit Deal

Fake News: Couple Did NOT Name Child Farage Rees-Mogg, NOT Facing Jail

Fake News: Hillary Clinton Did NOT Say 'The Only Crime I Ever Committed Was Stealing The Hearts Of The American People'

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