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Type of site | |
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| Available in | English |
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| Launched | 2014 |
| Current status | Active |
The People's Voice (formerly known as NewsPunch and Your News Wire) is an American fake news website[1] based in Los Angeles. The site was founded as Your News Wire[5][11][12] in 2014 by Sean Adl-Tabatabai and his husband, Sinclair Treadway.[3][6][13] In November 2018, it rebranded itself as NewsPunch.[11] Your News Wire was revived as a separate website in November 2020, and has continued publishing hoaxes similar to those in NewsPunch.[14] In 2023, NewsPunch adopted its current name, The People's Voice.[15]
A 2017 BuzzFeed News report identified NewsPunch as being the second-largest source of popular fake stories spread on Facebook that year,[6] and a June 2018 Poynter analysis identified NewsPunch as being debunked over 80 times in 2017 and 2018 by Poynter-accredited factcheckers such as Snopes, FactCheck.org, PolitiFact, and the Associated Press.[7]
The European Union's East StratCom Task Force has criticized NewsPunch for spreading Russian propaganda, a charge Adl-Tabatabai denies.[3]
Regular contributors to NewsPunch include Adl-Tabatabai, a former BBC and MTV employee from London previously an employee of conspiracy theorist David Icke,[16] Adl-Tabatabai's mother Carol Adl, an alternative health practitioner, and Baxter Dmitry, who had previously been posing as an unrelated Latvian man using a stolen profile photo.[17][18]
The name The People's Voice was also used by a short-lived internet TV station in the 2010s, which was founded by Icke.
Fake news stories
The People's Voice, NewsPunch, and Your News Wire have published false stories, including:
- Stories pushing the debunked Pizzagate conspiracy theory.[19][20] NewsPunch was one of the first sites to propagate the conspiracy theory, publishing a falsified story that was later used as a basis for Pizzagate's viral spread among the alt-right.[21]
- Claims that the 2017 Las Vegas shootings and Manchester Arena bombings were false flags.[22][23]
- Anti-vaccination hoaxes alleging that Bill Gates refused to vaccinate his children[24] and "admitted that vaccinations are designed so that governments can depopulate the world".[25]
- Claims that Hillary Clinton's popular vote victory in the 2016 United States presidential election was the result of voter fraud.[26]
- Allegations that Clinton was responsible for Anthony Bourdain's suicide,[27][28] invoking the conspiracy theory that the Clintons had murdered people.[28]
- False claims that Justin Trudeau was the love child of Fidel Castro.[11]
- False claims about the World Economic Forum[29][30][31]
See also
References
- 1 2 [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]
- ↑ Brown, Étienne (October 2, 2018). "Propaganda, Misinformation, and the Epistemic Value of Democracy". Critical Review. Routledge. 30 (3–4): 194–218. doi:10.1080/08913811.2018.1575007. S2CID 151051037.
- 1 2 3 Boswell, Josh (2017). "Mother churns out stories for master of fake news". The Sunday Times. ISSN 0956-1382. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
- ↑ "Don't get fooled by these fake news sites". CBS News. February 10, 2017. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
- 1 2 "Websites that Post Fake and Satirical Stories - FactCheck.org". FactCheck.org. July 6, 2017. Retrieved November 25, 2018.
- 1 2 3 "These Are 50 Of The Biggest Fake News Hits On Facebook In 2017". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
- 1 2 "Fact-checkers have debunked this fake news site 80 times. It's still publishing on Facebook". Poynter. July 20, 2018. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
- ↑ "YourNewsWire.com's file". @politifact. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
- ↑ "No evidence Lisa Page blamed DNC hack on Chinese". @politifact. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
...Your News Wire which frequently publishes fake news...
- ↑ "FACT CHECK: Did Melania Trump Ban White House Staff from Taking Flu Shot?". Snopes.com. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
...a consistent purveyor of fake news and political disinformation, YourNewsWIre[sic]...
- 1 2 3 Frier, Sarah (November 4, 2018). "Facebook Tamped Down on Hoax Sites, But Polarization Thrives". www.bloomberg.com. Retrieved November 6, 2018.
- ↑ "FACT CHECK: Did a Starbucks Executive Say That 'White Men Are the Root of All Evil'?". Snopes.com. Retrieved November 25, 2018.
- ↑ "L.A. Alt-Media Agitator (Not Breitbart) Clashes With Google, Snopes". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved September 4, 2018.
- ↑ Thalen, Mikael (November 23, 2020). "Infamous conspiracy site returns to push hoax that George Soros was arrested for election fraud". The Daily Dot. Retrieved February 10, 2021.
- ↑ "No, pope didn't authorize World Economic Forum to write 'fact checked' Bible".
- ↑ Boswell, Josh (January 29, 2017). "Mother churns out stories for master of fake news". The Sunday Times. ISSN 0956-1382. Retrieved May 24, 2019.
After working as a television producer for the BBC and MTV, he took a job helping to run the conspiracy theory site of David Icke, a former BBC sports presenter who claims the world is secretly run by alien reptiles in disguise.
- ↑ Boswell, Josh (2017). "Mother churns out stories for master of fake news". The Sunday Times. ISSN 0956-1382. Retrieved September 5, 2018.
Another prolific writer on the site goes by the name of Baxter Dmitry. The photograph next to the author's name was in fact that of a Latvian computer programmer, who told The Sunday Times he was not Dmitry and his identity had been stolen.
- ↑ "Sean Adl-Tabatabai on being in the eye of the 'fake news' storm | London Evening Standard". August 16, 2018. Archived from the original on August 16, 2018. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
- ↑ "FBI: Pizzagate Arrests 'Imminent' In Washington Pedophile Ring Bust". Your News Wire (archived by archive.is). February 4, 2017. Archived from the original on February 4, 2017. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
- ↑ "FBI Insider: Clinton Emails Linked To Political Pedophile Sex Ring". Your News Wire (archived by archive.is). March 9, 2018. Archived from the original on March 9, 2018. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
- ↑ "How The Bizarre Conspiracy Theory Behind "Pizzagate" Was Spread". BuzzFeed. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
- ↑ "Debunking hoaxes, fake news about the Las Vegas massacre". PolitiFact. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
- ↑ "FACT CHECK: Was the Manchester Terror Attack a 'False Flag'?". Snopes.com. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
- ↑ "Website peddles false claim about Bill Gates, vaccinations". @politifact. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
- ↑ "FACT CHECK: Did Bill Gates Admit Vaccinations Are Designed So Governments Can Depopulate the World?". Snopes.com. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
- ↑ "FACT CHECK: Did a Study Determine 25 Million Fraudulent Votes Were Cast for Hillary Clinton?". Snopes.com. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
- ↑ McCarthy, Bill (June 12, 2018). "Fake news faults Clintons for Bourdain's death". PolitiFact. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
- 1 2 Emery, David (June 11, 2018). "Was Anthony Bourdain Killed by Clinton Operatives?". Snopes. Retrieved October 12, 2022.
- ↑ Roy, Shreyashi (October 18, 2022). "False: WEF admitted that COVID-19 lockdowns were a test for implementing social-credit schemes". Logically. Retrieved April 9, 2023.
- ↑ "Fact Check-World Economic Forum did not call for decriminalizing pedophilia". Reuters. January 9, 2023. Retrieved April 9, 2023.
- ↑ Kulsum (March 21, 2023). "False: World Economic Forum wants America to implement 'one-child policy' for white families". Logically. Retrieved April 9, 2023.