Every day, a new fake story emerges with the power to affect policy or further corrode relationships, from interpersonal to international. This is corrosive disinformation, as different from garden-variety scams and hoaxes as a molehill is from a mountain. The difference is intent — not just to mislead, but to defraud and misinform — and scale. Simple …
How to Slow the Spread of Disinformation: A Guide for Newsrooms Read More »
On December 27, 2018, a brief video appeared to show Trump administration Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussing homosexuality and referring to the Rapture, which according to certain sects of evangelical Christianity is the end of the world in which all “true believers,” dead or alive, ascend to Heaven: One of the “battles” Pompeo is …
Did President Donald Trump’s Secretary of State Call Same-Sex Marriage ‘Evil’? Read More »
On November 18, 2018, after destructive wildfires tore through northern California, the following image was shared to Facebook: Its caption read: A rattlesnake frozen in death during the California wildfires. His last defiant act was to strike at the flames that consumed him. RIP dear snake. This particular image (inaccurately) featured a location of “Paradise …
Is This a Real Photo of a Rattlesnake That Died in a Wildfire? Read More »
A highly publicized caravan of people traveling from Central America in order to turn themselves in at the United States border to request asylum — one of many groups who have done so over the years — has been dogged from start to finish by false stories and threats spurred by that disinformation. One large …
From Central America to the United States Border, a Journey of Lies Read More »
Fans of the beloved sitcom Friends, which featured four, well, friends living in a late-1990s New York City apartment together and doing late-1990s things together, mourned together on social media in early December 2018 when Netflix apparently announced it would no longer be carrying the show after the new year: The story went viral almost …
Amid escalating news reports of unarmed adults and children being teargassed over an international border by the United States, infants and children being forcibly, and permanently, taken from their parents, and asylum-seekers being held in detention camps, yet another story and image appeared: Photo credit: Adria Malcolm for Yahoo! News As some readers and viewers …
Are Asylum-Seekers Getting Numbers Written on Their Arms at the United States Border? Read More »
In November 2018, a scientist from China named He Jankui appeared to have ushered in a new era in humanity — and re-ignited an already heated international conversation about the ethics of editing genes to make “designer babies” — by announcing that he had successfully used gene-editing tool CRISPR-Cas9 to modify the DNA of two embryos before birth: …
Has a Scientist Who Claimed He Created the First ‘Gene-Edited Babies’ Disappeared? Read More »
In November 2018, a Grand Rapids, Michigan woman who needed a heart transplant due to complications from chemotherapy was turned down by a Spectrum Health medical committee due to lack of funds: Martin’s son, Alex Britt, said she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2005 and the chemotherapy treatment, while curing her cancer, damaged her …
Did a Medical Committee Recommend Fundraising for a Heart Transplant? Read More »
The days following a cross-border chemical attack by American forces on unarmed members of a caravan of men, women, and children from Central America across the border with Mexico were filled with disinformation and outright propaganda as people and organizations attempted to justify the actions. One of the tear gas canisters the US used on …
Was Teargas Used ‘Once a Month’ at the Border Under the Obama Administration? Read More »
On November 25th, 2018, at the tail end of the long Thanksgiving weekend in the United States, the United States government closed down the San Ysidro port of entry — one of the busiest land crossings in the world — into and out of Mexico. When a group of people ran to the border crossing, …
Were Photographs Showing the United States Firing Teargas at a Crowd in Mexico ‘Staged’? Read More »
