Fake news website
Website that deliberately publishes hoaxes and disinformation / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Fake news website?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
Fake news websites (also referred to as hoax news websites)[1][2] are websites on the Internet that deliberately publish fake news—hoaxes, propaganda, and disinformation purporting to be real news—often using social media to drive web traffic and amplify their effect.[3][4][5][6] Unlike news satire, fake news websites deliberately seek to be perceived as legitimate and taken at face value, often for financial or political gain.[7][8][4] Such sites have promoted political falsehoods in India,[9][10] Germany,[11][12] Indonesia and the Philippines,[13] Sweden, Mexico,[14][15] Myanmar,[16] and the United States.[17][18] Many sites originate in, or are promoted by, Russia,[3][19] or North Macedonia among others.[20][21] Some media analysts have seen them as a threat to democracy.[12] In 2016, the European Parliament's Committee on Foreign Affairs passed a resolution warning that the Russian government was using "pseudo-news agencies" and Internet trolls as disinformation propaganda to weaken confidence in democratic values.[5]
In 2015, the Swedish Security Service, Sweden's national security agency, issued a report concluding Russia was using fake news to inflame "splits in society" through the proliferation of propaganda.[14] Sweden's Ministry of Defence tasked its Civil Contingencies Agency with combating fake news from Russia.[14] Fraudulent news affected politics in Indonesia and the Philippines, where there was simultaneously widespread usage of social media and limited resources to check the veracity of political claims.[13] German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned of the societal impact of "fake sites, bots, trolls".[12]
Fraudulent articles spread through social media during the 2016 U.S. presidential election,[17][18] and several officials within the U.S. Intelligence Community said that Russia was engaged in spreading fake news.[22][23] Computer security company FireEye concluded that Russia used social media to spread fake news stories[24] as part of a cyberwarfare campaign.[25] Google and Facebook banned fake sites from using online advertising.[26][27] Facebook launched a partnership with fact-checking websites to flag fraudulent news and hoaxes; debunking organizations that joined the initiative included: Snopes.com, FactCheck.org, and PolitiFact.[28] U.S. President Barack Obama said a disregard for facts created a "dust cloud of nonsense".[29] Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) Alex Younger called fake news propaganda online dangerous for democratic nations.[30]