Misinformation
Houston (AFP) - A US judge on Friday approved the liquidation of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' personal assets, setting the stage for the repayment of a fraction of the nearly $1.5 billion in damages he owes families whose loved ones were killed in a school shooting. But the bankruptcy judge in Houston spared Jones from liquidating the parent company of his far-right website InfoWars -- long notorious for peddling misinformation -- in a reprieve that will allow it to remain in business. The serial provocateur had been ordered to pay the damages for calling a 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook ...
AFP
Houston (AFP) - A US judge on Friday approved the liquidation of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' personal assets, media reports said, setting the stage for the repayment of nearly $1.5 billion in damages he owes the victims of a school mass shooting. The ruling by a bankruptcy court in Houston throws into doubt the future of Jones's far-right website InfoWars -- long notorious for peddling misinformation -- which dangled the prospect of a "potential last broadcast" on Friday. The serial provocateur had been ordered to pay nearly $1.5 billion in damages for calling a 2012 mass shooting at Sandy...
AFP
Houston (AFP) - A US judge on Friday approved the liquidation of conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' personal assets to help repay the nearly $1.5 billion in damages he owes the families of a mass shooting at a Connecticut school, media reported. The ruling by a bankruptcy court in Houston throws into doubt the future of Jones's far-right website InfoWars that has long been notorious for peddling misinformation. The serial provocateur had been ordered to pay nearly $1.5 billion in damages for calling a 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook elementary school in the state of Connecticut –- which left 20 ...
AFP
Washington (AFP) - US wellness influencers are increasingly targeting birth control pills, pushing their followers to abandon the contraceptives with false claims about infertility and low libido that researchers say leave them vulnerable to unintended pregnancies. The explosion of misinformation on platforms such as TikTok and Instagram comes as reproductive rights take center stage in the looming presidential election, in a country where abortion is banned or restricted in nearly half the states. Many influencers -- who are not licensed medical specialists -- are part of what appears to be a...
AFP
Washington (AFP) - US far-right conspiracy website Gateway Pundit is filing for bankruptcy, its founder said Wednesday, as it battles a string of lawsuits alleging it promoted misinformation related to the 2020 election. Parent company TGP Communications is seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Florida, founder Jim Hoft said in a note to readers, blaming "progressive liberal" lawsuits. The Gateway Pundit, launched as a blog in 2004, rose to prominence as it trumpeted conspiracy theories about a range of subjects, from mass shootings to Donald Trump's false claim that the 2020 election wa...
AFP
Washington (AFP) - Migrants, vaccines, pedophilia rings -- old conspiracy theories are resurfacing ahead of the US election despite being repeatedly debunked, in what researchers call "zombie" falsehoods that appear to resonate with polarized voters. Americans are deluged with misinformation about political hot-button issues that observers say have the potential to sway voters in the widely anticipated rematch between President Joe Biden and Donald Trump in November. That includes misinformation that is recycled online despite being repeatedly knocked down by fact-checkers in what seems like a...
AFP
Washington (AFP) - Terrified onlookers crouch behind a wall as lights streak across the night sky in what self-proclaimed digital investigators claimed was footage of Iranian drones over Israel. But the video is months old, repurposed to sow misinformation. Social media sites such as X, formerly Twitter, were swamped with misrepresented visuals after Iran launched an unprecedented wave of drones and missiles toward Israel at the weekend, exacerbating Middle East tensions during an ongoing war that has already seen a flood of misinformation. Many of the falsehoods about the Iranian strikes were...
AFP
Washington (AFP) - From India and South Korea to Croatia and North Macedonia, fact-checking organizations battling an ever-rising tide of misinformation in a major election year are buffeted by legal threats, harassment and funding shortfalls. Fact-checkers, largely under-resourced and increasingly under attack, have their work cut out this year as dozens of countries hold elections, a period when falsehoods typically explode. Debunking fake political claims and hoaxes that threaten election integrity, likened by some researchers as a seemingly endless game of whack-a-mole, comes with a litany...
AFP
Washington (AFP) - A digital tool considered vital in tracking viral falsehoods, CrowdTangle will be decommissioned by Facebook owner Meta in a major election year, a move researchers fear will disrupt efforts to detect an expected firehose of political misinformation. The tech giant says CrowdTangle will be unavailable after August 14, less than three months before the US election. The Palo Alto company plans to replace it with a new tool that researchers say lacks the same functionality, and which news organizations will largely not have access to. CrowdTangle has been a game-changer for yea...
AFP
Washington (AFP) - From vampires and wendigos to killer asteroids, TikTok users are pumping out outlandish end-of-the-world conspiracy theories, researchers say, in yet another misinformation trend on a platform whose fate in the United States hangs in the balance. In the trend reported by the nonprofit Media Matters, TikTok users seek to monetize viral videos that make unfounded claims about the US government secretly capturing or preserving mythical monsters that include -– wait for it –- King Kong. It is the latest illustration of misinformation swirling on the platform -- a stubborn issue ...
AFP
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