WFake news is false or misleading information presented as news. It often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person or entity, or making money through advertising revenue. However, the term does not have a fixed definition, and has been applied more broadly to include any type of false information, including unintentional and unconscious mechanisms, and also by high-profile individuals to apply to any news unfavourable to his/her personal perspectives.
WAfter Truth: Disinformation and the Cost of Fake News is a 2020 documentary television film directed by Andrew Rossi and executive produced by Brian Stelter. The film premiered on HBO on March 19, 2020.
W"Alternative facts" was a phrase used by U.S. Counselor to the President, Kellyanne Conway, during a Meet the Press interview on January 22, 2017, in which she defended White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer's false statement about the attendance numbers of Donald Trump's inauguration as President of the United States. When pressed during the interview with Chuck Todd to explain why Spicer would "utter a provable falsehood", Conway stated that Spicer was giving "alternative facts". Todd responded, "Look, alternative facts are not facts. They're falsehoods."
WArab News is an English-language daily newspaper published in Saudi Arabia. It is published from Riyadh. The target audiences of the paper which is published in broadsheet are businessmen, executives and diplomats.
WBanc De Binary was an Israeli financial firm with a history of regulatory issues on three continents. On January 9, 2017, the company announced that it would be closing due to negative press coverage and its tarnished reputation. The firm also surrendered its brokerage license with the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) removing its ability to legally trade in the European Union. Its 2014 revenues were reported as $100 million.
WThe Broken Oath is a 1910 silent short film starring Florence Lawrence, directed by Harry Solter, and produced by Carl Laemmle. It was the first film to marquee the name of an actor, Lawrence, to promote a film.
WCircular reporting, or false confirmation, is a situation in source criticism where a piece of information appears to come from multiple independent sources, but in reality comes from only one source. In many cases, the problem happens mistakenly through sloppy intelligence-gathering practices. However, at other times, the situation can be intentionally contrived by the original source as a way of reinforcing the widespread belief in its information.
WThe COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in misinformation and conspiracy theories about the scale of the pandemic and the origin, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of the disease. False information, including intentional disinformation, has been spread through social media, text messaging, and mass media. False information has been propagated by celebrities, politicians, and other prominent public figures. Multiple countries have passed laws against "fake news", and thousands of people have been arrested for spreading coronavirus disease 2019 misinformation. The spread of COVID-19 misinformation by governments has also been significant.
WAlexander Emerick Jones is an American far-right radio show host and conspiracy theorist. New York magazine has described Jones as "America's leading conspiracy theorist", and the Southern Poverty Law Center describes him as "the most prolific conspiracy theorist in contemporary America". He hosts The Alex Jones Show from Austin, Texas, which the Genesis Communications Network syndicates across the United States and online. Jones' website, InfoWars, promotes conspiracy theories and fake news, as do his other websites NewsWars and PrisonPlanet. Jones has provided a platform and support for white nationalists, as well as serving as an "entry point" to their ideology.
WLouise Daphne Mensch is a British blogger, novelist, and former Conservative Member of Parliament. In the 1990s she became known as a writer of chick lit novels under her maiden name Louise Bagshawe. She was elected Conservative MP for Corby at the 2010 UK general election.
WMocha Uson Blog is a Facebook page that serves as a blog site of Mocha Uson.
W"Pizzagate" is a debunked conspiracy theory that went viral during the 2016 United States presidential election cycle. It has been extensively discredited by a wide range of organizations, including the Washington, D.C. police.
WThe Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Act, commonly abbreviated as POFMA and known colloquially as Fake News Law, is a statute of the Parliament of Singapore that enables authorities to tackle the spread of fake news or false information. The law is designed specifically to allow authorities to respond to fake news or false information through a graduated process of enforcing links to fact-checking statements, censorship of website or assets on social media platforms, and criminal charges. The law is controversial and has received criticism both locally and internationally by opposition politicians, human rights groups, journalists and academics.
WQAnon is a disproven far-right conspiracy theory alleging that a cabal of Satanic, cannibalistic pedophiles operate a global child sex trafficking ring and conspired against former President Donald Trump during his term in office. QAnon has been described as a cult.
WPablo Reyes is a Mexican writer, prankster and contributor to fake news websites. He is the founder of Huzlers, a fictional news website that attracts about 387,000 unique visitors per month, according to Comscore. That makes it the No. 1 American site tracked by Comscore in a new genre that Huzler's founder calls “fauxtire” — not quite The Onion, but not quite PBS.
WWayne Allyn Root is an American conservative radio host, author, activist, far-right political commentator and conspiracy theorist. He is the host of The Wayne Allyn Root Show on KBET and the USA Radio Network and formerly on Newsmax TV. Root was an opinion columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
WStop Funding Fake News (SFFN) is an advocacy group which asks advertisers to stop placing ads on web sites it argues are spreading misinformation. The organisation is small and mostly anonymous but its CEO is Imran Ahmed. It is a project of the Center for Countering Digital Hate.
WSurfSafe is a browser extension intended to help viewers spot fake news, in the form of altered or misleadingly used images. It is currently available for Firefox, Google Chrome and Opera. RoBhat Labs, a company founded by two undergraduates at University of California, Berkeley, who had previously developed software that identified bot accounts on Twitter. It was released in August 2018 after a presentation at the Aspen Ideas Festival. The creators liken it to antivirus for Internet users' news feeds.
WEsther Margaux "Mocha" Justiniano Uson, known by her screen name Mocha Uson, is a controversial Filipina singer, actress, dancer, model, political blogger, and appointive public official known for spreading fake news and disinformation. She is also a co-founder of the group Mocha Girls.
WPaul Joseph Watson is a British right-wing YouTuber, radio host, writer and conspiracy theorist whose views have often been qualified as anti-feminist and politically extremist. Up until July 2016, Watson concurred with his alt-right label, but has since dropped the label and now self-identifies as being part of the new right. Despite the change, he is still understood to be a far-right individual by multiple sources. In May 2019, Facebook and Instagram permanently banned Watson for violation of hate speech policies.