Snopes

Fact-checking website

For the novels by William Faulkner, see Snopes trilogy.

Snopes.com

Type of site

| Reference pages
Owner|

* Chris Richmond
* Drew Schoentrup[1][2]

Created by| Barbara Mikkelson
David P. Mikkelson[3]
URL| snopes.com
Commercial| Yes
Registration| Required only on forums
Launched| 1994; 30 years ago (1994) (as Urban Legends Reference Pages)
Current status| Active

Snopes (/ˈsnoʊps/), formerly known as the Urban Legends Reference Pages, is a fact-checking website.[4] It has been described as a "well-regarded reference for sorting out myths and rumors" on the Internet.[5][6] The site has also been seen as a source for both validating and debunking urban legends and similar stories in American popular culture.[7]

## History

[edit]

### 1990s

[edit]

In 1994,[8][9][10] David and Barbara Mikkelson created an urban folklore web site that would become Snopes.com. Snopes was an early online encyclopedia focused on urban legends, which mainly presented search results of user discussions based at first on their contributions to the Usenet newsgroup alt.folklore.urban (AFU) where they'd been active.[11] The site grew to encompass a wide range of subjects and became a resource to which Internet users began submitting pictures and stories of questionable veracity. According to the Mikkelsons, Snopes predated the search engine concept of fact-checking via search results.[12] David Mikkelson had originally adopted the username "Snopes" (the name of a family of often unpleasant people in the works of William Faulkner) in AFU.[13][14][15][16]

### 2000s

[edit]

In 2002, the site had become known well enough that a television pilot by writer-director Michael Levine called Snopes: Urban Legends was completed with American actor Jim Davidson as host. However, it did not air on major networks.[14]

### 2010s

[edit]

By 2010, the site was attracting seven million to eight million unique visitors in an average month.[17][18] By mid-2014, Barbara had not written for Snopes "in several years"[3] and David hired users from Snopes.com's message board to assist him in running the site. The Mikkelsons divorced around that time.[3][19] Christopher Richmond and Drew Schoentrup became part owners in July 2016 with the purchase of Barbara Mikkelson's share by the internet media management company Proper Media.[20]

On March 9, 2017, David Mikkelson terminated the brokering agreement with Proper Media, which was also the company that provided Snopes with web development, hosting, and advertising support.[21] The move prompted Proper Media to stop remitting advertising revenue and to file a lawsuit in May. In late June, Bardav—the company founded by David and Barbara Mikkelson in 2003 to own and operate snopes.com—started a GoFundMe campaign to raise money to continue operations.[22] They raised $500,000 in 24 hours.[23] Later, in August, a judge ordered Proper Media to disburse advertising revenues to Bardav while the case was pending.[24]

In July 2018, Snopes abruptly terminated its contract with Managing Editor Brooke Binkowski, with no explanation.[clarification needed] By the time Snopes co-founder and CEO David Mikkelson confirmed the termination to her, the situation was still not clear.[25]

In early 2019, Snopes announced that it had acquired the website OnTheIssues.org, and is "hard at work modernizing its extensive archives".[26] OnTheIssues is a website that seeks to "present all the relevant evidence, assess how strongly each piece supports or opposes a position, and summarize it with an average" in order to "provide voters with reliable information on candidates' policy positions".[27]

In 2018 and 2019, Snopes fact-checked several articles from The Babylon Bee, a satirical website, rating them "False". The decision resulted in Facebook adding warnings to links to those articles shared on its site.[28][29][30] Snopes added a new rating called "Labeled Satire" to identify satirical stories.[31]

In 2019, Snopes was embroiled in legal disputes with Proper Media, with a court case scheduled for spring 2020. By then Proper Media had become a co-owner of Bardav through acquiring Barbara Mikkelson's half-interest share, intending to take overall ownership of Snopes for its own "portfolio of media sites". The move failed as David Mikkelson had no intention to sell his share.[32]

### 2020s

[edit]

#### COVID-19 pandemic and misinformation

[edit]

Main article: COVID-19 misinformation

As the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020, many people tried to "educate themselves on the coronavirus" and find "any comfort, certainty, or hope for a cure [for the coronavirus]".[33][non-primary source needed] Snopes has around 237 COVID-related fact-checking articles.[34][year needed]

#### Plagiarism by co-founder David Mikkelson

[edit]

On August 13, 2021, BuzzFeed News published an investigation by reporter Dean Sterling Jones that showed David Mikkelson had used plagiarized material from different news sources in 54 articles between 2015 and 2019 in an effort to increase website traffic.[35][36][37] Mikkelson also published plagiarized material under a pseudonym, "Jeff Zarronandia".[35] The BuzzFeed inquiry prompted Snopes to launch an internal review of Mikkelson's articles and to retract 60 of them the day the BuzzFeed story appeared. Mikkelson admitted to committing "multiple serious copyright violations" and apologized for "serious lapses in judgment."[38] He was suspended from editorial duties during the investigation, but remains an officer and stakeholder in the company.[39][38]

#### Change of ownership

[edit]

On September 16, 2022, David Mikkelson stepped down as CEO and was succeeded by shareholder and board member Chris Richmond.[1] Richmond and fellow shareholder Drew Schoentrup together acquired 100% of the company, ending the ownership dispute which began in 2017.[1]

## Main site

[edit]

Snopes aims to debunk or confirm widely spread urban legends. The site has been referenced by news media and other sites, including CNN,[40] MSNBC,[41] Fortune, Forbes, and The New York Times.[42] By March 2009, the site had more than six million visitors per month.[43] David Mikkelson ran the website from his home in Tacoma, Washington.[44]

Mikkelson has stressed the reference portion of the name Urban Legends Reference Pages, indicating that the intention is not merely to dismiss or confirm misconceptions and rumors but to provide evidence for such debunkings and confirmation as well.[45] Where appropriate, pages are generally marked "undetermined" or "unverifiable" when there is not enough evidence to either support or disprove a given claim.[46]

In an attempt to demonstrate the perils of over-reliance on the Internet as authority, Snopes assembled a series of fabricated urban folklore tales that it termed "The Repository of Lost Legends".[47] The name was chosen for its acronym, T.R.O.L.L., a reference to the definition of the word troll, meaning an internet persona intended to be deliberately provocative or incendiary.[15]

In 2009, FactCheck.org reviewed a sample of Snopes's responses to political rumors regarding George W. Bush, Sarah Palin, and Barack Obama, and found them to be free from bias in all cases.[48][49] In 2012, The Florida Times-Union reported that About.com's urban legends researcher found a "consistent effort to provide even-handed analyses" and that Snopes' cited sources and numerous reputable analyses of its content confirm its accuracy.[50]

Mikkelson has said that the site receives more complaints of liberal bias than conservative bias, but added that the same debunking standards are applied to all political urban legends.[48]

## Funding

[edit]

In 2016, Snopes said that the entirety of its revenue was derived from advertising.[51] In the same year it received an award of $75,000 from the James Randi Educational Foundation, an organization formed to debunk paranormal claims. In 2017, it raised approximately $700,000 from a crowd-sourced GoFundMe effort and received $100,000 from Facebook as a part of a fact-checking partnership.[52] Snopes also offers a premium membership that disables ads.[53]

On February 1, 2019, Snopes announced that it had ended its fact-checking partnership with Facebook. Snopes did not rule out the possibility of working with Facebook in the future but said it needed to "determine with certainty that our efforts to aid any particular platform are a net positive for our online community, publication and staff". Snopes added that the loss of revenue from the partnership meant the company would "have less money to invest in our publication—and we will need to adapt to make up for it".[54][55]

Snopes publishes a yearly summary detailing expenses and sources of income.[52]

## See also

[edit]

* Internet portal

* List of fact-checking websites
* FactCheck.org – Fact-checking website
* Hoax – Widespread deliberate fabrication presented as truthes
* List of common misconceptions

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c "Snopes Co-Owners Acquire All Remaining Shares of the Company, Bringing Total Stake to 100%". www.yahoo.com. Archived from the original on September 23, 2022. Retrieved September 23, 2022.
2. ^ "Disclosures". Snopes.com. Archived from the original on October 31, 2021. Retrieved November 20, 2022.
3. ^ a b c "How the Truth Set Snopes Free". Webby Awards. Archived from the original on December 17, 2016. Retrieved December 10, 2018.
4. ^ "Snopes.com: Debunking Myths in Cyberspace". NPR. August 27, 2005. Archived from the original on September 11, 2005. Retrieved August 27, 2005.
5. ^ Allison, Melissa (March 4, 2007). "Companies Find Rumors Hard to Kill on Internet". Herald and Review. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved June 9, 2018. (image 3).
6. ^ Same article: "Corporations Combat Insistent Urban Legends on Internet". The Courier. March 4, 2007. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018. Retrieved June 9, 2018. (image 7).
7. ^ Henry, Neil (2007). American Carnival: Journalism Under Siege in an Age of New Media. University of California Press. p. 285. ISBN 978-0520243422. "The most widely known resource for validating or debunking rumors, myths, hoaxes, and urban legends in popular American culture is the website run by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson at www.snopes.com... ."
8. ^ "Triangulation 343 David Mikkelson, Snopes.com". TWiT.tv. Archived from the original on April 26, 2018. Retrieved April 25, 2018.
9. ^ "About Us". Snopes. Archived from the original on June 3, 2023. Retrieved June 3, 2023.
10. ^ Tattoli, Chantel; Jones, Dean Sterling (June 6, 2023). "Inside Snopes: the rise, fall, and rebirth of an internet icon". Fast Company. Archived from the original on June 3, 2023. Retrieved June 3, 2023.
11. ^ Aspray, William; Cortada, James W. (August 12, 2019). From Urban Legends to Political Fact-Checking: Online Scrutiny in America, 1990-2015. Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature (published 2019). p. 24\. ISBN 978-3-030-22951-1. Archived from the original on July 16, 2023. Retrieved June 3, 2023. `{{cite book}}`: `|website=` ignored (help)
12. ^ Stelter, Brian (April 4, 2010). "Debunkers of Fictions Sift the Net". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 22, 2023. Retrieved April 5, 2010.
13. ^ "Frequently Asked Questions". Snopes. Archived from the original on October 31, 2021. Retrieved June 9, 2006. "What are 'snopes'?"
14. ^ a b Bond, Paul (September 7, 2002). "Web site separates fact from urban legend". SFGATE. Archived from the original on August 5, 2018. Retrieved July 17, 2012.
15. ^ a b Porter, David (2013). "Usenet Communities and the Cultural Politics of Information". Internet Culture. Routledge. p. 48\. ISBN 978-1135209049. Archived from the original on July 16, 2023. Retrieved September 13, 2016. "The two most notorious trollers in AFU, Ted Frank and snopes, are also two of the most consistent posters of serious research."
16. ^ Seipp, Cathy (July 21, 2004). "Where Urban Legends Fall". National Review. Archived from the original on August 12, 2004. Retrieved February 7, 2014.
17. ^ Stelter, Brian (April 4, 2010). "Debunkers of Fictions Sift the Net". The New York Times. Archived from the original on April 6, 2010. Retrieved March 19, 2013.
18. ^ "Snopes.com Audience Insights". Quantcast. Archived from the original on October 13, 2017. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
19. ^ Madrigal, Alexis C. (July 24, 2017). "Snopes Faces an Ugly Legal Battle". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on May 12, 2019. Retrieved June 20, 2018.
20. ^ Bruno, Bianca (May 10, 2017). "Fact-Checker Snopes' Owners Accused of Corporate Subterfuge". Courthouse News. Archived from the original on June 21, 2018. Retrieved June 20, 2018.
21. ^ Farhi, Paul (July 24, 2017). "Is Snopes.com, the original Internet fact-checker, going out of business?". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on July 27, 2017. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
22. ^ Victor, Daniel (July 24, 2017). "Snopes, in Heated Legal Battle, Asks Readers for Money to Survive". The New York Times. Archived from the original on July 25, 2017. Retrieved January 19, 2018.
23. ^ "Snopes Meets $500K Crowdfunding Goal Amid Legal Battle". Bloomberg. Associated Press. July 25, 2017. Archived from the original on December 22, 2017. Retrieved December 18, 2017.
24. ^ Dean, Michelle (September 20, 2017). "Snopes and the Search for Facts in a Post-Fact World". Wired. Retrieved December 10, 2018.
25. ^ "Snopes fired its managing editor and she doesn't know why". Poynter Institute. July 31, 2018. Archived from the original on August 13, 2021. Retrieved August 24, 2021.
26. ^ "Snopes Acquires On The Issues". Snopes. Retrieved April 13, 2019.[dead link]
27. ^ Potash, Eric (November 4, 2016). "Why It's So Hard to Find Out Where the Candidates Stand". Washington Monthly. Archived from the original on April 13, 2019. Retrieved April 4, 2019.
28. ^ Wemple, Erik (March 5, 2018). "Opinion | Facebook working on approach to classifying satirical news pieces". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on July 31, 2019. Retrieved December 28, 2020.
29. ^ Chokshi, Niraj (August 3, 2019). "Satire or Deceit? Christian Humor Site Feuds With Snopes". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on August 13, 2019. Retrieved August 16, 2019.
30. ^ Broderick, Ryan (July 31, 2019). "A Christian Satire Site Says Fact-Checkers Are Helping De-Platform Conservatives". BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on August 13, 2019. Retrieved August 16, 2019.
31. ^ "Let's Make Fact-Checking Even Better". Snopes. August 16, 2019. Archived from the original on June 15, 2021. Retrieved August 17, 2019.
32. ^ "Tacoma-based Snopes, debunker of fake news, is locked in a nasty legal dispute". The Seattle Times. June 4, 2019. Archived from the original on August 27, 2021. Retrieved August 27, 2021.
33. ^ "Snopes on COVID-19 Fact-Checking". Snopes.com. March 21, 2020. Archived from the original on January 15, 2022. Retrieved January 15, 2022.
34. ^ "The Coronavirus Collection: Snopes Fact Checks About COVID-19". Snopes.com. February 28, 2020. Archived from the original on January 15, 2022. Retrieved January 15, 2022.
35. ^ a b Lyons, Ron Jr. (August 13, 2021). "The CEO of fact-checking site Snopes was caught plagiarizing dozens of articles". Business Insider Australia. Archived from the original on August 13, 2021. Retrieved August 16, 2021.
36. ^ Lyons, Kim (August 13, 2021). "Go read this report about a Snopes editor who plagiarized other news sites". The Verge. Archived from the original on August 13, 2021. Retrieved August 13, 2021.
37. ^ "The Cofounder Of The Fact-Checking Site Snopes Was Writing Plagiarized Articles Under A Fake Name". BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on August 13, 2021. Retrieved August 14, 2021.
38. ^ a b Murphy, Heather (August 13, 2021). "Snopes Retracts 60 Articles Plagiarized by Co-Founder: 'Our Staff Are Gutted'". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on August 14, 2021. Retrieved August 14, 2021.
39. ^ Jones, Dean Sterling (August 13, 2021). "The Cofounder Of The Fact-Checking Site Snopes Was Writing Plagiarized Articles Under A Fake Name". BuzzFeed. Archived from the original on August 13, 2021. Retrieved August 13, 2021.
40. ^ Nissen, Beth (October 3, 2001). "Hear the rumor? Nostradamus and other tall tales". CNN. Archived from the original on August 25, 2004. Retrieved June 7, 2009.
41. ^ "Urban Legends Banned-April Fools'!". MSNBC. April 1, 2007. Archived from the original on October 13, 2013. Retrieved June 7, 2009.
42. ^ "Urban Legends Reference Pages: Who Is Barack Obama?". Snopes. August 24, 2008. Retrieved January 22, 2008.
43. ^ Hochman, David (March 2009). "Rumor Detectives: True Story or Online Hoax?". Reader's Digest. Archived from the original on March 18, 2009. Retrieved March 29, 2016.
44. ^ Lacitis, Erik (October 10, 2018). "Lies, lies and more lies. Out of an old Tacoma house, fact-checking site Snopes uncovers them". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on November 6, 2018. Retrieved November 6, 2018.
45. ^ "Urban Legends Reference Pages: Frequently Asked Questions". Snopes. Archived from the original on October 31, 2021. Retrieved June 9, 2006. "How do I know the information you've presented is accurate?"
46. ^ "Urban Legends Reference Pages: Round Rock Gangs". Snopes. July 21, 2011. Archived from the original on April 4, 2022. Retrieved May 3, 2009.
47. ^ "Urban Legends Reference Pages: Lost Legends". Snopes. Retrieved June 9, 2006.
48. ^ a b "Ask FactCheck: Snopes.com". FactCheck.org. April 10, 2009. Archived from the original on January 4, 2022. Retrieved November 4, 2011.
49. ^ "Fact-checking the fact-checkers: Snopes.com gets an 'A'". Network World. April 13, 2009. Archived from the original on July 7, 2014.
50. ^ Fader, Carole (September 28, 2012). "Fact Check: So who's checking the fact-finders? We are". The Florida Times-Union. Archived from the original on July 15, 2016. Retrieved July 20, 2016.
51. ^ Streitfeld, David (December 25, 2016). "For Fact Checking Website Snopes, a Bigger Role Brings More Attacks". The New York Times. Archived from the original on December 28, 2016. Retrieved December 27, 2016.
52. ^ a b "Disclosures". Snopes.com. Archived from the original on October 31, 2021. Retrieved March 3, 2021.
53. ^ Izadi, Elahe (April 15, 2020). "There are so many coronavirus myths that even Snopes can't keep up". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on April 23, 2020. Retrieved May 3, 2020.
54. ^ Green, Vinny; Mikkelson, David (February 1, 2019). "A Message to Our Community Regarding the Facebook Fact-Checking Partnership". Snopes.com. Archived from the original on April 26, 2019. Retrieved February 2, 2019.
55. ^ "Snopes says nope to Facebook's money and leaves fact-checking program". The Verge. February 1, 2019. Archived from the original on February 24, 2021. Retrieved February 22, 2021.

## External links

[edit]

* Official website

* v
* t
* e

Sovrn Holdings

Employees|

* Chris Richmond

Online properties|

* Salon.com
* Snopes
* TV Tropes

* v
* t
* e

Urban legends

* List

By region|

| North America|

* 27 Club
* White lighter curse
* 2016 clown sightings
* The Baby-Roast
* The babysitter and the man upstairs
* The Backrooms
* Bermuda Triangle
* Bloody Mary
* Candle Cove
* Coghlan's coffin
* Cow tipping
* The Dark Side of the Rainbow
* John Fare
* Gasoline pill
* The Hook
* Killer in the backseat
* The Licked Hand
* Lighthouse and naval vessel
* Litter boxes in schools hoax
* Men in black
* Momo Challenge
* Snuff films
* The Spooklight
* Tayopa
* Frank Tower
* Vanishing hitchhiker

Canada|

* Angikuni's disappeared Inuit village
* Oak Island money pit
* Screaming Tunnel
* St. Louis light
* Thetis Lake Monster

United
States|

* Aurora
* Baby Train
* Ben Drowned
* Black children as alligator bait
* Black Dog of the Hanging Hills
* Black-eyed children
* Blue star tattoo
* Boy Scout Lane
* Brown Mountain lights
* Bunny Man
* Charlie No-Face
* Chase Vault
* Chimera House
* Choking Doberman
* Rodney Cox
* Rudolph Fentz
* Goatmen
* Goatman's Bridge
* Maryland's Goatman
* Pope Lick Monster
* Lake Worth Monster
* The Hands Resist Him
* Haunchyville
* JATO Rocket Car
* Kay's Cross
* Kennedy curse
* Lincoln–Kennedy coincidences
* Lost Dutchman's Mine
* Melon heads
* Mel's Hole
* Midgetville
* Night Doctors
* Phantom social workers
* Philadelphia Experiment
* Poisoned candy
* Polybius
* Sightings of Elvis Presley
* Richmond Vampire
* Ronald Opus
* Seven Gates of Hell
* Sewer alligators
* Slender Man
* 2014 stabbing
* Tourist guy

Continental and
mainland Asia|

* Colonel Tomb
* Nale Ba
* SS Ourang Medan
* Orang Minyak

India|

* Indian rope trick
* Monkey-man of Delhi

Japan|

* Curse of the Colonel
* Aka Manto ("Red Cape")
* Hanako-san of the Toilet
* Headless Rider
* Inunaki Village
* John Zegrus
* Kisaragi Station
* Kokkuri
* Kuchisake-onna ("Slit-Mouthed Woman")
* Kunekune ("Wriggling Body")
* Lavender Town
* Red Room Curse
* 'Sony timer'
* Teke Teke

Philippines|

* Biringan City
* Yamashita's gold

Continental
Europe|

* And yet it moves
* Black Volga
* Ghost of Kyiv
* Herobrine
* Konstantinos Koukidis
* Le Loyon
* Pérák
* Red mercury
* Silverpilen
* This Man

France|

* Angels of Mons
* Vanishing Hotel Room

Germany|

* German Corpse Factory
* Lampshades made from human skin
* Soap made from human corpses
* Lone gunner of Flesquières
* Nazi UFOs

Poland|

* Kraina Grzybów TV
* Nazi gold train
* Zegrze Reservoir Monster

Soviet Union/Russia|

* Legends of Catherine the Great
* Lenin was a mushroom
* Hitler's pet alligator
* Well to Hell
* White Tights

Spain|

* Castilian lisp
* Sacamantecas
* Santa Compaña

United Kingdom|

* 999 phone charging myth
* Baby Train
* Black dog
* The Crying Boy
* The Dark Side of the Rainbow
* HMS Friday
* Phantom social workers
* The Spider Bite
* Strategic steam reserve
* RMS Titanic

England|

* British big cats
* University of Cambridge legends
* Croydon Cat Killer
* Isaac Newton's dog
* Manchester Pusher
* Man Proposes, God Disposes
* Mistletoe bough
* Paul is dead
* Purple Aki
* Ratman of Southend
* Spring-heeled Jack
* Sweeney Todd

Africa|

* Elephants' graveyard
* Guegue
* Madam Koi Koi

Oceania|

* Bass Strait Triangle

Australia|

* Baby Train
* Flora and Fauna Act
* Mahogany Ship
* Poinciana Woman

South America|

* James Bartley
* Treasure of Lima

Topic articles|

* Creepypastas
* Legends and myths regarding the Titanic
* McDonald's urban legends
* Time travel claims and urban legends
* Urban legends about drugs

Theorists
and analysis|

* Jan Harold Brunvand
* Hoax Slayer
* Linda Dégh
* Gary Alan Fine
* Patricia Turner
* Snopes

TV series|

* Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction
* MythBusters
* Urban Legends
* Channel Zero

In fiction|

* _9MOTHER9HORSE9EYES9
* Candyman franchise
* No Through Road
* Petscop
* SCP Foundation
* Urban Legend (film series)

Related|

* List of creepypastas
* List of cryptids
* Lists of fictional species
* Lists of legendary creatures

* Category

* v
* t
* e

Disinformation and misinformation

Types

* Algorithmic radicalization
* Alternative facts
* Big lie
* Cherry picking
* Circular reporting
* Cognitive bias
* List of cognitive biases
* Conspiracy theory (list)
* Deception
* Denialism
* Disinformation attack
* Doublespeak
* Euphemistic misspeaking
* Factoid
* Fake news
* online
* list of websites
* Lying press
* Fallacy
* List of fallacies
* False accusation
* False dilemma
* False flag
* Fear, uncertainty, and doubt
* Firehose of falsehood
* Forgery as covert operation
* Gaslighting
* Half-truth
* Historical negationism
* Hoax
* Infodemic
* Internet manipulation
* Manipulation (psychology)
* Media culture
* Media manipulation
* Potemkin village
* Post-truth politics
* Psychological warfare
* Memetic warfare
* Military deception
* Propaganda
* black propaganda
* counterpropaganda
* State-sponsored Internet propaganda
* Quote mining
* Scientific fabrication
* Smearing
* Social bot
* Spin
* Truthiness
* Urban legend
* Whataboutism
* Yellow journalism

Books and documentaries

* Disinformation by Ion Mihai Pacepa
* Dezinformatsia: Active Measures in Soviet Strategy
* The KGB and Soviet Disinformation
* Who's Who in the CIA
* Merchants of Doubt
* After Truth: Disinformation and the Cost of Fake News

Examples

* Bermuda Triangle
* Congo Free State propaganda war
* Climate change denial
* Free energy suppression
* Genocide denial
* Holocaust denial
* Illuminati
* International Jewish conspiracy
* Misinformation in the Israel–Hamas war
* Disinformation in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
* New World Order
* Red mercury
* Reptilians
* Rothschilds
* Strategy of tension

| Health|

* 5G
* COVID-19 misinformation
* by governments
* Ebola
* HIV/AIDS denialism
* Mental illness denial
* Misinformation related to abortion
* Vaccines
* anti-vaccination
* autism
* COVID-19
* Water fluoridation controversy

|

Operations and events by country

| Canada|

Jihadunspun.com

|

China|

* Chinese information operations
* 50 Cent Party
* cyberwarfare
* Little Pink
* Internet Water Army
* PLA Unit 61398
* Spamouflage
* COVID-19
* Global Times

Czechoslovakia|

Operation Neptune

Germany|

* Funkspiel
* Propaganda in Nazi Germany
* Myth of the clean Wehrmacht

India|

* Fake news in India
* Godi-media
* Paid news in India
* OpIndia

Israel|

Team Jorge

Korea|

Voluntary Agency Network of Korea

Kuwait|

Fintas Group

Mexico|

Peñabots

Philippines|

* COVID-19 misinformation in the Philippines (ChinaAngVirus disinformation campaign)
* Fake news in the Philippines
* Historical distortion regarding Ferdinand Marcos

Russia /
Soviet Union|

| Soviet era|

* Active Measures
* K-1000 battleship
* Operation INFEKTION
* Operation Toucan
* Seat 12
* Soviet influence on the peace movement
* U.S. Army Field Manual 30-31B
* Useful idiot

|

Post-Soviet era|

* Cyberwarfare
* on Estonia
* during the Russo-Georgian War
* Information war against Ukraine
* Disinformation in the Russian invasion of Ukraine
* On US elections
* 2016
* 2018
* 2020
* 2016 Brexit referendum
* Russian Institute for Strategic Studies
* Trolls from Olgino
* Web brigades

South Africa|

HIV/AIDS denialism

Turkey|

* Conspiracy theories
* Media censorship and disinformation during the Gezi Park protests
* AK Trolls

United Kingdom|

* Bell Pottinger
* Double-Cross System
* Clockwork Orange plot
* Euromyth
* Lancet MMR autism fraud
* Operation Mass Appeal
* Psychological Warfare Division
* Zinoviev letter

United States|

* 1995 CIA disinformation controversy
* Attempts to overturn the 2020 election
* Conspiracy theories
* 9/11 conspiracy theories
* CIA Kennedy assassination
* QAnon
* Sandy Hook
* COVID-19
* Fake news
* online
* Election denial movement in the United States
* The Freedom Fighter's Manual
* Habbush letter
* Information Operations Roadmap
* Litter boxes in schools
* Mohamed Atta's alleged Prague connection
* Niger uranium forgeries
* Tobacco industry playbook
* Operation Shocker
* Yellow rain

Venezuela|

Bolivarian Army of Trolls

Vietnam|

* Public opinion brigades
* Force 47

Opposition

* Fact-checking
* Fact-checking website
* Active Measures Working Group
* Counter disinformation unit
* Counter Misinformation Team
* Countering Foreign Propaganda and Disinformation Act
* The Disinformation Project
* East StratCom Task Force
* FactCheck.org
* Full Fact
* Logically
* NewsGuard
* PolitiFact
* Snopes
* StopFake
* United States Information Agency
* USAFacts

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