Disinformation That Mimics Legitimate News Sites Makes Detection More Challenging
A deceptively simple avenue for delivering disinformation appears to be growing in popularity, even though the method itself has been around for years.
Purveyors of disinformation create false news stories or screen captures, making them look like they were copied from well-known and legitimate news sources. These false news articles may include stolen logos, the forged names of real reporters and other things to make the stories look legitimate.
Once created, false stories are shared through social media, often with a comment expressing either agreement or outrage, while making readers believe the content came from the real news source.
It works because people who view the fake stories often don’t bother to confirm whether the information actually came from the site being mimicked.
This old trick is gaining renewed popularity globally because it’s cheap, the content is easy to generate, and it looks believable.
France Uncovers Massive Russia Network Sharing Forged News Stories
This week, France announced it uncovered a sprawling Russian disinformation campaign that uses this very tactic. The French government claimed it was a multi-pronged approach that included things like generating real-looking articles with false content, then posting them on social media sites, then using bot networks to upvote or amplify the posts. In some cases, once the false claims took root, they would be referenced as legitimate by Russian government and institutional accounts.
The propaganda network was designed to spread pro-Russian content, while pushing a series of anti-Ukraine messages. The fake articles imitated the look of media organizations such as Le Monde, Le Figaro and Le Parisien. Some French government websites were also imitated.
The false stories focused on things like:
- Claiming international sanctions against Russian were ineffective.
- Highlighting “Russophobia” in the West as something that’s hurting the world.
- Raising questions about whether Ukrainian refugees are having a negative impact on other countries.
Meanwhile, in Great Britain, the British Broadcasting Company had an issue with someone replicating the design of the BBC logo and using a similar domain name to fool readers into clicking into the site. Many visitors believed the news stories they viewed were actually created by the BBC. These forged stories could then be shared, through the site, by visitors who thought they were on the BBC website.
The issue is not unique to Europe. In the United States, CNN, ABC, and other news organizations have had multiple fake versions of their sites taken down over the years.
The best way to push back against this kind of false representation is to continuously stress the need for fact checking.
- Check the original source every time. Don’t just follow a social media link. For example, if a suspicious article is detected, go directly to the site that supposedly published the article. See if the same article actually appears there.
- Evaluate the sources mentioned in the article. Are they named? Are actual places and people mentioned that can be cross-checked?
- Get news from a variety of sources. Untrustworthy sources often target specific social media groups or hashtags because they’ve had luck there before.
- When you see misinformation being shared, correct it when you can and ask people to stop sharing. (This can be a big challenge, especially if the false news stories seem to support a belief those people already hold.)
This remains a complex problem to address. A study from the American Psychological Association, published in March, 2023, said Americans may share fake news to fit in with social circles. By passing along a story that reflects what the larger group believes, some people feel like they gain a place at the table in those groups. Thus, they share the news even though they may suspect the content is not real.
Propagandists who create counterfeit news articles understand this, and they quickly create a supply of false content for social media consumption.
