Facebook Is Promoting Conspiracy Theory Website Zero Hedge in Trending Topics
I’ve known about Zero Hedge for years and their alt-right, pro-Russian leanings. Their 3 authors push extreme right kookspiracy theories along with dubious fiscal stories; some of which I’ve suspected were designed to benefit pump and dump stock schemes for Russian and Eastern European benefactors.
I’m glad that MMFA is speaking up about Facebook’s promotion of them because I”m tired of friends and relatives pushing their ridiculous stories into my feed as if they were real news stories. Like most well crafted propaganda sites, they keep just enough facts in their articles to allow their followers to defend them. For example, even though they are perennially pessimistic about all Western economies, some credit them for their master of the obvious identification corruption in the banking industry.
Zero Hedge was initially launched as a financial blog in 2009 and has repeatedly trafficked in the same ecosystem as The Gateway Pundit and Infowars. The latter two are conspiracy theory websites that, along with 4chan’s “politically incorrect” message board (commonly referred to as /pol/), are well known for spreading misinformation. Infowars and Gateway Pundit have become so notorious that even some conservatives have spoken out against them. Zero Hedge sometimes pushes conspiracy theories from Gateway Pundit, and Infowars has also often taken stories from Zero Hedge to push conspiracy theories. Infowars figures have also taken part in some of the same conspiracy theories as Zero Hedge.
Some of the false or dubious claims Zero Hedge has indulged in together with those websites include:
- promoting forged documents from 4chan targeting then-French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron;
- pushing conspiracy theories that the white supremacist gathering in Charlottesville, VA, consisted of paid actors and that the organizer was actually a liberal spy;
- suggesting that the Clintons murdered a former Haitian government official;
- claiming former Attorney General Loretta Lynch was “busted” for secretly using an alias to communicate with DOJ officials, despite her action being both precedented in government and already public knowledge.
- saying anti-Trump protesters were bused into cities after the 2016 election.
- claiming that the Defense Department was organizing a “national blackout” drill on the day anti-fascist group antifa was supposedly planning to hold a violent protest (it wasn’t);
- pushing a conspiracy theory that former President Barack Obama was secretly behind a Hawaii federal judge’s ruling that blocked President Donald Trump’s Muslim ban;
- claiming that 4chan had made up what is now known as the “pee tape” portion of the Trump dossier; and
- suggesting that a Bernie Sanders activist had been murdered in some kind of coverup.
Additionally, Zero Hedge has pushed multiple false stories from fake news website YourNewsWire and from fake news website True Pundit. It also pushed the conspiracy theory known as Pizzagate, and repeatedly promoted conspiracy theories surrounding slain Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Rich.
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