Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

We Tracked Down a Fake-News Creator in the Suburbs

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 223 posts

Re: We Tracked Down a Fake-News Creator in the Suburbs

#11

Post by AndrewKemendo »

epicureanideal wrote: post #3

This was the most interesting part for me... -------- He says he got into fake news around 2013 to highlight the extremism of the white nationalist alt-right. "The whole idea from the start was to build a site that could kind of infiltrate the echo chambers of the alt-right, publish blatantly or fictional stories and then be able to publicly denounce those stories and point out the fact that they were fiction," Coler…

I hope we don't get to the point where it's really just all out information warfare

Make no mistake, it's always been all out information warfare. The difference now is that the new messengers are not high ranking government or business people and the medium is faster and easier to penetrate.

In the past you had to have background, credential and access to get your word into one of the few mediums available, Radio, TV or Print. Now all you need is to make something look good enough and find the right audience.

Re: We Tracked Down a Fake-News Creator in the Suburbs

#12

Post by trprog »

epicureanideal wrote: post #7
caf wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I suppose there's the potential for making people cast a more critical eye over outlandish articles that appear to support their own position, if there's a possibility that it might have been created by "the enemy" to discredit them.

But it also creates an environment where you can't ever actually know what any group thinks. "Are there REALLY neo-nazis giving nazi salutes celebrating Trump's victory on video, or is this a staged event to make Trump look like he has neo-nazi supporters?" "Are there even that many well dressed, non-tattoo'd neo-nazis?" (Maybe there are... I don't know any personally, but I wasn't expecting to see people in button d…

Although the medium is new the idea of publishing stuff that misrepresents other people's position is nothing new. Here is a relatively modern example from the very early 20th century https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protocols_of_the_Elders_of...

And although the term has a very tinfoil hat connotation "false flag operations" have also been a thing for millennia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/False_flag Even young children understand the logic of "I will do a thing and try to make it look like someone else did it."

>But it also creates an environment where you can't ever actually know what any group thinks.

You never could really. At best you could get a vague approximation that was hopefully not inaccurate in any way that would bite you in the ass.

Re: We Tracked Down a Fake-News Creator in the Suburbs

#13

Post by noobermin »

epicureanideal wrote: post #3

This was the most interesting part for me... -------- He says he got into fake news around 2013 to highlight the extremism of the white nationalist alt-right. "The whole idea from the start was to build a site that could kind of infiltrate the echo chambers of the alt-right, publish blatantly or fictional stories and then be able to publicly denounce those stories and point out the fact that they were fiction," Coler…

>the fake news was created by the left to discredit the alt-right

I would say that this individual who was a liberal tried to do this. This isn't like a group of leftists conspiring to do (anti-)propaganda. It is pretty stupid, and his continuation of it is extremely confusing.

Sorry, but a side rant to the more "entrepreneurial" startup-cats who browse here. Would you consider this fellow and others like him an entrepreneur? I ask because there is talk in the article that he is one. Even if you take him at his word that he is trying to highlight the problem of disinformation rather than profit off of it, it seems quite suspect to me.

A good analogy here is a cook serving spoiled food to highlight healthy and safe cooking habits, regardless of who it hurts. It makes no sense.

Re: We Tracked Down a Fake-News Creator in the Suburbs

#14

Post by nickfromseattle »

caf wrote: post #5

The first "fake news" I remember seeing was about a year ago, and it was completely apolitical - it was a made-up story about a multiple-fatality car crash in my city. When I investigated the source, it had several exact copies of the same article, just set in different cities around the world. At the time I was completely bewildered as to the motive behind this, but I can only assume that it's the ad money, as paltr…

I was tricked by KNP7.com. If you search "Eminem moves to {city name}" the exact same article appears for multiple cities including Seattle, New York and probably dozens of other cities.

Re: We Tracked Down a Fake-News Creator in the Suburbs

#16

Post by matt_wulfeck »

> "FBI Agent Suspected In Hillary Email Leaks Found Dead In Apparent Murder-Suicide." The story is completely false

Yes this story false. What's not false is that a DNC staffer was found murdered in DC and nothing was taken from his pockets right after the DNC email leaks. Assange suggested he was the source and offered up a $25k reward[0].

1. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2016/08/10/assange-implies-m...

Re: We Tracked Down a Fake-News Creator in the Suburbs

#17

Post by vidarh »

visarga wrote: post #8

> At any given time, Coler says, he has between 20 and 25 writers Ha! He's hired some shady SEO company to write those. You can buy "spun" articles by the hundreds from black hat forums. I wouldn't be surprised if they were actually written by some poor Indian. No way can he pay 25 writers with $20-30K/month. It's just a get rich quick scheme, a spammer, but one that destroys a lot of public value in order to profit…

Fiverr. You can buy a huge amount of unique ("unspun") articles with $20k-$30k month.

Maybe he spins them too, but getting huge amount of unique content cheaply is trivial if you don't care much about the quality.

Re: We Tracked Down a Fake-News Creator in the Suburbs

#18

Post by golfer »

epicureanideal wrote: post #3

This was the most interesting part for me... -------- He says he got into fake news around 2013 to highlight the extremism of the white nationalist alt-right. "The whole idea from the start was to build a site that could kind of infiltrate the echo chambers of the alt-right, publish blatantly or fictional stories and then be able to publicly denounce those stories and point out the fact that they were fiction," Coler…

I don't believe his narrative for a second. He's in this for the money, period. He peddles lies for a living, and also is lying about "publicly denouncing" anything.

Re: We Tracked Down a Fake-News Creator in the Suburbs

#19

Post by rhizome »

epicureanideal wrote: post #3

This was the most interesting part for me... -------- He says he got into fake news around 2013 to highlight the extremism of the white nationalist alt-right. "The whole idea from the start was to build a site that could kind of infiltrate the echo chambers of the alt-right, publish blatantly or fictional stories and then be able to publicly denounce those stories and point out the fact that they were fiction," Coler…

I hope we don't get to the point where it's really just all out information warfare... and it seems like we're already halfway there.

Those in power have been there for all of our lives. J. Edgar Hoover only died in 1972 and his practice of information warfare was well in place by then. The "halfway" you speak of is in the citizen's awareness that anybody can be ratfucked[1] and that they're going to need to be able to protect themselves. Maybe there should be a 2nd Amendment for data, packets, or internet connections in general.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ratfucking

Re: We Tracked Down a Fake-News Creator in the Suburbs

#20

Post by WhitneyLand »

Jestin Coler is a cancer and his actions should be made illegal. It seems possible such a law could be narrowly applied such that it would prove constitutional. Judicial review could weigh the value to society of false speech, or lying, against the erosion of integrity in the free press.

One example of a false speech review was the stolen valor act. Lot of doors left open here; http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/the_first_amendment_a...

Post reply on HN