U.S. Seizes Websites NewsGuard Rated as Russian Disinformation
PLUS: Fake C-SPAN Caption Claims Single Clap for J.D. Vance; Trump Was Not Intentionally Put at Bottom of N.C. Ballot
Welcome to Reality Check, your inside look at how misinformation online is undermining trust — and who’s behind it.
Today:
U.S. seizes websites NewsGuard had found publish Russian disinformation
Crickets for J.D.? Doctored C-SPAN caption claims just one person clapped for Vance at rally
Not Anti-Trump: Candidate order on North Carolina ballot is random, not rigged
And more…
Today’s newsletter was edited by Jack Brewster, Eric Effron, and Sofia Rubinson
1. U.S. Government Seizes Websites Previously Identified by NewsGuard as Purveying Russian Disinformation
By McKenzie Sadeghi and Sam Howard
On Sept. 4, 2024, the Biden administration announced a series of actions aimed at countering Russian interference in the 2024 presidential election, with actions by the Justice, Treasury, and State Departments. Much of the attention focused on indictments against operatives of RT for funding $10 million from the Kremlin to pay for U.S. social media videos aimed at undermining American institutions.
The actions also included the rare step by the U.S. government of seizing 32 internet domains. The news is striking, but to readers who have access to NewsGuard ratings such as through our browser extension, this seizure features websites that are familiar sources of Russian disinformation.
What happened: Among those caught in the federal government’s crosshairs were websites identified by the U.S. as Russia-based propaganda sites that NewsGuard had already flagged for spreading misleading, pro-Kremlin information.
A closer look: The DOJ announced the seizure of 32 domains with a history of publishing Russian disinformation, including:
WarOnFakes.com (NewsGuard Trust Score: 7.5/100), a Moscow-based site that advanced Kremlin propaganda under the guise of providing “objective” information while “debunking” supposedly false claims.
NewsGuard had found that the site has advanced 11 Russian disinformation narratives about the war, including the false claim that Ukraine staged an attack on a maternity hospital in Mariupol and that the massacre of civilians in Bucha, Ukraine, was staged.
You can read NewsGuard’s Nutrition Label for WarOnFakes.com by clicking here.
The Doppelgänger Network (Trust Score: 7.5/100), a network of websites posing as independent news outlets, with names such as ElectionWatch.live, 50statesoflie.com, and Liesofwallstreet.com.
NewsGuard found that the sites in this network have regularly published false or egregiously misleading claims and Kremlin propaganda, apparently using AI. This includes a November 2023 story advancing the false claim that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky bought two yachts worth $75 million.
You can read NewsGuard’s Nutrition Label for The Doppelgänger Network by clicking here.
Domains replicating and impersonating authentic media, including Fox-News.in.
The site has regularly published fabricated articles mimicking Fox News, including a July 15, 2024, article titled “Redneck Foreign Policy: J.D. Vance Is a Democrat Nightmare.”
You can read NewsGuard’s Misinformation Fingerprint relating to this site, which falsely presents itself as the actual Fox News, here.
Click here to find out more about NewsGuard Trust Scores and our process for rating websites. You can download NewsGuard’s browser extension, which displays NewsGuard Trust Score icons next to links on search engines, social media feeds, and other platforms by clicking here.
2. Satire Strikes Again: Fake C-SPAN Caption Claims a ‘Single Person Clapping’ During J.D. Vance Speech
By Sam Howard
What happened: Liberal social media users and some news sites are sharing a C-SPAN screenshot with a fake closed caption claiming that there was only a “single person clapping” during a recent campaign speech by Republican vice-presidential candidate J.D. Vance.
The image was originally created as satire, but some news sites and social media users did not get the joke.
Context: C-SPAN (Trust Score: 82.5/100) is a public service network that broadcasts government proceedings and political events.
A closer look: Politics and technology news site BoingBoing.net (Trust Score: 80/100) published an Aug. 29, 2024, story titled, “CSPAN caption savagely murders J.D. Vance.”
The article, published eight days after Vance held a rally in Asheboro, North Carolina, inaccurately stated: “Whoever was captioning at CSPAN felt obliged to specify that only a single member of the audience was clapping at that specific moment.”
Asked about this article, Boing Boing publisher Jason Weisberger told NewsGuard in an email: “Thank you for your correction. The post has been updated.” A correction above the story now states: “The image was a fake, as disclosed by its source.”
However, the claim had already taken off before the correction was issued:
“@cspan caption person for the win,” X user @WUTangKids, who often criticizes former President Donald Trump, stated in an Aug. 28, 2024, post that included the fake C-SPAN screenshot. It was reposted 4,500 times in two days.
An Aug. 28, 2024, X post by B.W. Carlin, a digital consultant who posts liberal commentary, included the fake screenshot and said: “Right into the subtitle hall of fame.” Carlin’s post was reposted 22,000 times by Aug. 30.
Actually: Just kidding!
C-SPAN Director of Communications Howard Mortman told NewsGuard in an August 2024 email: “That image is fake. It never appeared on C-SPAN.”
Indeed, the image was created by an X user who acknowledged in a subsequent post that it was meant to be satirical.
To make certain, NewsGuard reviewed C-SPAN’s transcript of its closed captioning of Vance’s Aug. 21, 2024, speech and found no mention of “single person clapping.” Instead, the caption at that point in the speech reads “cheers and applause,” and the footage shows numerous people cheering and clapping.
Who’s behind it: The doctored image appears to have been created by X user Jean-Michel Connard, who posted it on Aug. 21, 2024, without acknowledging that it was satire.
After Vance critics circulated the caption on X, Connard said in an Aug. 28, 2024, post: “Kind of funny to see the silly jokes I make escape containment.”
Tricks of their trade: This is just the latest example of a satirical post going viral as a false narrative.
Part of the problem is labeling. Accounts that create satirical content often do not disclose that their posts are “satire,” and their bios may not indicate satire either. Even when an account does provide a disclaimer, the doctored photos or videos can still be copied and shared without including the satire warning.
Below are the account bio of Connard, the user behind the satirical post, and his original post:
Carlin, Connard, and @WUTangKids did not respond to requests for comment from NewsGuard sent over X.
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3. And one more thing … Order, Order: Trump Placement on North Carolina Ballot Sparks New ‘Stolen Election’ Claim
Trump’s name, buried in controversy? Not exactly.
What happened: Pro-Trump social media users are claiming that Democrats have rigged the U.S. presidential election by placing Donald Trump’s name near the bottom of North Carolina’s ballot.
The goal, they say, is to reduce Trump’s visibility among voters in a key swing state.
Context: North Carolina starts mailing absentee ballots on Sept. 6, 2024. It’s the first state in the nation to do so.
Bottoms up: “Reports show Trump is poised to appear near the bottom of the ballot in North Carolina. This is indefensible and a clear attempt at voter manipulation,” stated an Aug. 27, 2024, X post from pro-Trump user @RedEaglePatriot.
The post, which gained more than 1 million views and 7,200 interactions in two days, included a photo of North Carolina’s November 2024 ballot showing Trump’s name second to last.
Actually: The North Carolina State Board of Elections uses a completely randomized, two-step process to determine the order of candidates on the state ballot.
Here’s how that worked: For the 2024 elections, the board randomly determined the order in a Dec. 15, 2023, live stream — months before Trump became the Republican candidate to appear on the 2024 ballot.
The process began with a bingo cage filled with 26 balls, each labeled with a letter of the alphabet.
The random ball that Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the state elections board, drew was marked with the letter “D,” meaning that candidates whose last names begin with the letter “D” would appear first on the ballot.
Next, Board of Elections spokesman Patrick Gannon flipped a coin to decide whether the remaining candidates would be listed in standard or reverse alphabetical order starting from “D.” The coin landed on heads, indicating that the candidates would follow in standard alphabetical order.
Since there are no candidates in the 2024 presidential race whose last name starts with the letter “D,” following alphabetical order, Vice President Kamala Harris will appear first, followed by four third-party candidates, followed by Donald Trump, and ending with a third-party candidate whose name begins with “W.”
Had Joe Biden been the Democratic nominee for president, his name would have appeared last on the ballot.
The same order was used for the ballots in the state’s primaries on March 5, 2024. Despite being listed near the bottom of that ballot, too, Trump won the Republican presidential primary with 73 percent of the vote.
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