Techniques · Digital-era

Spoofed outlets

Websites and accounts built to look like real news organizations, by imitation, a near-identical address, or a plausible local name, so that a message borrows a newsroom's credibility without a newsroom.

Family Digital-era First documented 2016 Exploits Authority bias, Halo effect Related fallacy Appeal to authority
How it works

Readers trust the masthead. Spoofed outlets forge it. One form imitates a known outlet with a domain one letter off; another invents a local paper, "the Springfield Ledger," with a template, a stock skyline, and a stream of articles written to order; a third copies the design of a real site onto a fabricated story and lets the screenshot circulate. In each case the reader's check, "is this a real news source?", is answered by appearance, and appearance is cheap.

The invented-local-paper form, called "pink slime" after the meat filler, was documented by the Tow Center in 2019 at a scale of hundreds of sites run by a handful of operators, and has grown into thousands. The forgery form has a wartime ancestor in the "black" radio stations that broadcast to Germany as if from inside it. Exploits Authority Bias and Halo Effect.

Historical examples

1941–1945 · black propaganda

Britain's Political Warfare Executive, under Sefton Delmer, ran radio stations that presented themselves as German: Gustav Siegfried Eins, a supposed dissident officer, and Soldatensender Calais, a supposed forces station, mixing genuine news and music with demoralising fabrication. The stations were designed to be believed as German sources. Delmer's memoir describes the craft in detail.

Delmer, Sefton. Black Boomerang. London: Secker & Warburg, 1962; Howe, Ellic. The Black Game: British Subversive Operations against the Germans during the Second World War. London: Michael Joseph, 1982.

2016 · imposter domains

During the 2016 U.S. election, sites such as "abcnews.com.co" and the "Denver Guardian," the latter a nonexistent newspaper whose fabricated story about an FBI agent's death was shared more than half a million times, imitated real outlets' names and designs. The episode made the imposter site a recognized category and prompted platforms to label domains.

Silverman, Craig. "This Analysis Shows How Viral Fake Election News Stories Outperformed Real News on Facebook." BuzzFeed News, 16 November 2016; Allcott, Hunt, and Matthew Gentzkow. "Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 Election." Journal of Economic Perspectives 31, no. 2 (2017): 211–236.

In advertising and commerce

2019–present · pink slime

The Tow Center for Digital Journalism identified some 450 sites in 2019, later well over a thousand, presenting as local newspapers with names like the "Des Moines Sun," most run by a few networks, publishing automated and commissioned content on behalf of political and corporate clients. The sites fill the gap left by closed local papers with a newsroom's look and a client's agenda.

Bengani, Priyanjana. "Hundreds of 'Pink Slime' Local News Outlets Are Distributing Algorithmic Stories and Conservative Talking Points." Columbia Journalism Review, 20 December 2019; Bengani, Priyanjana. "As Election Looms, a Network of Mysterious 'Pink Slime' Local News Outlets Nearly Triples in Size." CJR, 4 August 2020.

Classroom prompt

Find a news site you have never heard of that covers your area. Who owns it? Who writes for it? When did it start? Can you find its office?

In the wild

Short examples of the technique at work, each with what to notice. The same examples are questions in the quiz, where the answer is not given away.

1
The shocking headline is on "theguardian-news.co"; the real paper's site has no such story.

What to notice. An imposter domain borrowing a real masthead's credibility for a fabricated story.

2
"The Riverside Gazette" launched this year, has no address or staff, and runs forty articles a day about the state's senate race.

What to notice. An invented local paper with a client's agenda; pink slime.

3
A screenshot shows a network's chyron announcing the resignation; the network's own site and archive contain nothing of the kind.

What to notice. A forged instance of a real outlet's design; cheap fakes is the medium, spoofing the target.

Sources

  1. Bengani, Priyanjana. "Hundreds of 'Pink Slime' Local News Outlets Are Distributing Algorithmic Stories and Conservative Talking Points." Columbia Journalism Review, 20 December 2019.
  2. Allcott, Hunt, and Matthew Gentzkow. "Social Media and Fake News in the 2016 Election." Journal of Economic Perspectives 31, no. 2 (2017): 211–236. doi:10.1257/jep.31.2.211
  3. Delmer, Sefton. Black Boomerang. London: Secker & Warburg, 1962.
  4. Howe, Ellic. The Black Game. London: Michael Joseph, 1982. ISBN 978-0718120573