How one publisher is faring after Facebook crackdown
“President Donald Trump signs an executive order allowing the hunting of bald eagles,” a headline from the St. George Gazette blared last month.
The headline was fake — as is the St. George Gazette, a pseudo local news organization that’s one of a handful of spoofgenerating sites run by entrepreneur Paul Horner from his home in Arizona. Yet the Trump story was widely shared, following the life cycle of inflammatory fake news stories frequently shared during the run-up to last year’s election.
But about a week after the story posted, fact checkers at Snopes.com and FactCheck.org saw the story was being flagged by users and debunked it. After that, any time the link was posted or shared on Facebook, the social network showed this message beneath the headline: “Disputed by Snopes.com and FactCheck.org.”
“There’s definitely been a huge change, a dramatic change,” Horner told USA TODAY by phone. “It’s hurt my wallet for sure with how difficult it is now to get something to go viral and people so quick to call things fake news.”
Facebook and Google came under fire late last year for allowing their networks and advertising programs to distribute and amplify fake news stories during the U.S. presidential election. In response, they said they’ve been cracking down on false stories and hoaxes, inking deals with fact-checking organizations, making it easier for users to report fake stories and choking economic incentives for fake news producers.
The snowball effect of these measures has been felt by Horner, the owner of ABCNews .com.co, CNN.com.de, the St. George Gazette and about 13 additional fake news domains. He told The Washington Post after the election he was making nearly $10,000 a month from fake news alone. After authoring widely shared fake stories about the entire Amish population voting for Trump and Twitter deleting Trump’s account, he told The Post he felt Trump was elected because of him — a sentiment he now disavows.
Horner said these days almost all of his stories that go viral on Facebook get disputed, and his most popular sites get marked as spam. Three were removed from Google’s ad network. He would not provide USA TODAY with exactly how many shares, views and dollars he has lost since Facebook and Google started cracking down on fake news. But he did say all have slightly decreased.
Several fake news sites have shuttered or stopped publishing entirely. Jestin Coler, named the “king” of fake news by NPR, has “retired” from the business and took the widely popular NationalReport.net and the Denver Guardian with him.
Revcontent, an advertisement service used by Forbes, Newsweek and Reuters, according to its website, took similar action when notified the St. George Gazette was using its services. It’s also the most popular ad service used by fake news creators, according to BuzzFeed News.
In a statement to USA TODAY, Katherine McDermott, Revcontent’s brand manager, said it’s a challenge to keep up with violations when content can be changed without the company knowing, explaining why some fake news sites end up with Revcontent ads. She compared Revcontent to YouTube, saying, “If YouTube was to fact-check every video on its site, it would be overwhelming to say the least.”