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]
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Type of site | |
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| Available in | English |
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| Launched | 2014 |
| Current status | Active |
Your News Wire
NewsPunch
Logos of former website names used by The People's Voice
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 Institute analysis identified NewsPunch as being debunked over 80 times in 2017 and 2018 by International Fact-Checking Network–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
editThe 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
editReferences
edit- ^ a b [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]
- ^ Brown, Étienne (October 2, 2018). "Propaganda, Misinformation, and the Epistemic Value of Democracy". Critical Review. 30 (3–4). Routledge: 194–218. doi:10.1080/08913811.2018.1575007. S2CID 151051037.
- ^ a b c Boswell, Josh (2017). "Mother churns out stories for master of fake news". The Sunday Times. ISSN 0956-1382. Archived from the original on July 18, 2017. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
- ^ "Don't get fooled by these fake news sites". CBS News. February 10, 2017. Archived from the original on March 1, 2019. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
- ^ a b "Websites that Post Fake and Satirical Stories - FactCheck.org". FactCheck.org. July 6, 2017. Archived from the original on May 12, 2018. Retrieved November 25, 2018.
- ^ a b c "These Are 50 Of The Biggest Fake News Hits On Facebook In 2017". BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on January 5, 2019. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
- ^ a b "Fact-checkers have debunked this fake news site 80 times. It's still publishing on Facebook". Poynter. July 20, 2018. Archived from the original on December 10, 2018. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
- ^ "YourNewsWire.com's file". @politifact. Archived from the original on August 14, 2023. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
- ^ "No evidence Lisa Page blamed DNC hack on Chinese". @politifact. Archived from the original on April 4, 2019. 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. Archived from the original on June 6, 2023. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
...a consistent purveyor of fake news and political disinformation, YourNewsWIre[sic]...
- ^ a b c Frier, Sarah (November 4, 2018). "Facebook Tamped Down on Hoax Sites, But Polarization Thrives". www.bloomberg.com. Archived from the original on November 6, 2018. Retrieved November 6, 2018.
- ^ "FACT CHECK: Did a Starbucks Executive Say That 'White Men Are the Root of All Evil'?". Snopes.com. Archived from the original on October 7, 2023. Retrieved November 25, 2018.
- ^ "L.A. Alt-Media Agitator (Not Breitbart) Clashes With Google, Snopes". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on September 24, 2017. 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. Archived from the original on February 9, 2021. Retrieved February 10, 2021.
- ^ "No, pope didn't authorize World Economic Forum to write 'fact checked' Bible". USA Today. Archived from the original on December 29, 2023. Retrieved December 29, 2023.
- ^ Boswell, Josh (January 29, 2017). "Mother churns out stories for master of fake news". The Sunday Times. ISSN 0956-1382. Archived from the original on July 18, 2017. 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. Archived from the original on July 18, 2017. 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. Archived from the original on December 5, 2016. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
- ^ "Debunking hoaxes, fake news about the Las Vegas massacre". PolitiFact. Archived from the original on November 5, 2018. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
- ^ "FACT CHECK: Was the Manchester Terror Attack a 'False Flag'?". Snopes.com. Archived from the original on January 27, 2022. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
- ^ "Website peddles false claim about Bill Gates, vaccinations". @politifact. Archived from the original on August 28, 2018. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
- ^ "FACT CHECK: Did Bill Gates Admit Vaccinations Are Designed So Governments Can Depopulate the World?". Snopes.com. Archived from the original on December 31, 2021. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
- ^ "FACT CHECK: Did a Study Determine 25 Million Fraudulent Votes Were Cast for Hillary Clinton?". Snopes.com. Archived from the original on January 20, 2022. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
- ^ McCarthy, Bill (June 12, 2018). "Fake news faults Clintons for Bourdain's death". PolitiFact. Archived from the original on August 28, 2018. Retrieved August 27, 2018.
- ^ a b Emery, David (June 11, 2018). "Was Anthony Bourdain Killed by Clinton Operatives?". Snopes. Archived from the original on October 12, 2022. 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. Archived from the original on June 8, 2024. Retrieved April 9, 2023.
- ^ "Fact Check-World Economic Forum did not call for decriminalizing pedophilia". Reuters. January 9, 2023. Archived from the original on April 9, 2023. Retrieved April 9, 2023.
- ^ Kulsum, Umme (March 21, 2023). "False: World Economic Forum wants America to implement 'one-child policy' for white families". Logically. Archived from the original on June 8, 2024. Retrieved April 9, 2023.