Analysis

Aftermath: TheBL.com's 'Fake' Survivors Get New Faces, Duties As Foreign Net Tries To Rise From The Ashes Of Facebook Purge

Editor's Note by Lead Stories Editor-in-Chief Alan Duke: Three days after a virtual apocalypse wiped out hundreds of fake people used to run a foreign pro-Trump network on Facebook, we... [Read the full story]
TheBL Editor Reacts As Facebook Takes Down Foreign 'Fake People' Network, Admits 'We Spent Lots Of Money On Trump'

Just days after Lead Stories revealed hundreds of "fake faces" used to mask a Vietnamese-based network of Facebook profiles and groups promoting political content on American timelines, those "people who... [Read the full story]
Fake Faces: People Who Do Not Exist Invade Facebook To Influence 2020 Elections (Part 1)

EDITORS NOTE: Meet Carolina Chaney. Take a good look at her Facebook profile photo. Maybe she looks like your kid's math teacher or your doctor. Privacy settings block us... [Read the full story]
Clint Eastwood Death Hoax Tech Eerily Reminiscent of 2017 Rowan Atkinson Death Hoax

Earlier this week Lead Stories already reported that Clint Eastwood was NOT dead, despite what a YouTube video was claiming: Fake News: Clint Eastwood is NOT Dead | Lead Stories... [Read the full story]
That Fake 'Drunk Pelosi' Video Was A Dud: How Lead Stories And Facebook Defused A Viral Bomb

A viral video that was digitally altered to make it appear that U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was slurring her words and drunk has raised questions about what social platforms... [Read the full story]
Press Release: Happy Fact-Checking Day! #factcheckingday

Lead Stories is happy to support Fact-Checking Day 2019! ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (April 2, 2019) - In most of the world, April 1 is a day for fools. April 2is... [Read the full story]
Malinformation, Misinformation, Disinformation: Lead Stories NOT Using The Term F*ke N*ws Anymore

Update: Yes, of course this was an April Fools joke :-) For years we here at Lead Stories have put the term "F*ke N*ws" in every headline but it is... [Read the full story]
Press Release: The International Fact-Checking Network launches FactCheckEU, its European fact-checking project

Hoaxes know no borders, especially in Europe. That's why the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) is proud to announce the launch of FactCheckEU, a collaborative effort from 19 European fact-checking outlets... [Read the full story]
On The Difference Between Fake News and Satire -- Why Lead Stories Needed A Satire Policy

Things used to be very simple and clear-cut here at Lead Stories. We used our Trendolizer engine to look for things that were trending online that were not true (but... [Read the full story]
Christopher Blair Launches New Snopes & DeadState Parody Sites

It appears the feud between Snopes and self-described internet troll Christopher Blair keeps on going: earlier this week he took to Facebook to announce a new parody website that explicitly... [Read the full story]
Lead Stories Joins Facebook's Third Party Fact Checking Partnership

COLORADO SPRINGS - Lead Stories is happy to announce we are now part of Facebook's partnership with various fact checking organisations around the world which aims to fight misinformation on... [Read the full story]
Kumanovo-connection Update: Macedonian Fake News Purveyor Revealed To Be Military Intelligence Major

One of the Macedonians identified by Nieuwscheckers and Lead Stories to be behind a network of sites publishing hate-mongering fake news turns out to be a major in the military... [Read the full story]
Macedonian Fake News Network Shuts Down Dozens Of Websites After Joint Investigation By Lead Stories & Nieuwscheckers

Back in November of 2018 fact checking sites Lead Stories and Nieuwscheckers collaborated to map a network of Macedonian fake news websites that had published thousands and thousands of articles... [Read the full story]
How A Tattoo Led Us To The Macedonian Trucker Delivering Loads of Fake News To The Internet

The joint investigation by Lead Stories and Nieuwscheckers into a network of Macedonian fake news sites reached a dead end last month: we knew most of the sites involved and... [Read the full story]
The Kumanovo-connection: Macedonian Spam Clans Still Make Money With Fake News About Muslims and Migrants

A Macedonian military man appears to be one of the driving forces behind a network of fake news websites that reached millions of people with articles often inciting hatred against... [Read the full story]
Here Are The Tools And Methods We Used To Map A Macedonian Fake News Network And The People Behind It

Sherlock Holmes had his magnifying glass. Hercule Poirot relied on his "little grey cells". But the 21st century internet detective needs more than that to catch the bad guys. In... [Read the full story]
Decline and Fall Of A Macedonian Fake News Network: Numbers Indicate Facebook's Measures Forced Desperate Move To Twitter

Although Macedonian fake news merchants still generate thousands of Facebook likes and shares, the platform's recent measures against bad actors have drastically reduced their reach. The next step in the... [Read the full story]
Lead Stories Fastest At Debunking 2018 Top Hoaxes Identified By BuzzFeed News

A few days ago BuzzFeed's Craig Silverman published his annual overview of the top 50 biggest on-line hoaxes of the previous year. Just like last year we used this list... [Read the full story]
Fake News: James Woods Hit By Death Hoax, First Victim of New Christopher Blair Site

Did actor and conservative commentator James Woods pass away? No, that's not true: his obituary was published by a new liberal satire website run by Christopher Blair on which he... [Read the full story]
Old Network of Anti-Islam Fake News Websites Turns To Twitter Trolling

Tara, Jesica, Ana, Lora: since a few weeks dozens of trolls on Twitter are dangling bait in front of American Trump supporters. Their goal: bring in as many clicks as... [Read the full story]
The Ultimate Christopher Blair and America's Last Line of Defense Reading List

Yesterday Eli Saslow at the Washington Post wrote a fantastic article about Christopher Blair, a man from Maine who has been trolling conservatives and Trump supporters online for years and... [Read the full story]
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]

Analysis

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Fake News: Hawaii: Scuba Diver NOT Hospitalized After His Penis Gets Stuck In Giant Clam

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Fake News: Florida Man NOT Arrested For Hanging On Traffic Light And Sh*tting On Cars Passing Underneath

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Recent

Fake News: Meme Does NOT Show Real Photo Of Hispanics Thanking Trump For Fantastic Economy

Fake News: Opinion Writer Does NOT Believe Trump Should File Article 2 Motion To Impeach Nancy Pelosi

Fake News: Actor Will Smith Did NOT Say: "I'm Not Afraid to Say That Trump And His Supporters are Ba..."

Fake News: Failed Senate Impeachment Conviction Does NOT Mean Trump Can Run Two More Times

Fake News: AOC Does NOT Suggest the Earth May Be Flat

Fake News: Casting Call For Crisis Actors Is NOT Coinciding With Pro-Gun Rally In Virginia

Fake News: Apricot Seeds Did NOT Cure Man's Cancer

Fake News: Photo Does NOT Show Red Cross Women Landing At Normandy

Fake News: NOT True That 20:20:20 In 2020 Will Never Happen Again In Our Lifetime

Fake News: Video Does NOT Show White Hair Permanently Becoming Black In Just 4 Minutes

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