How Misinformation Pays
The economics of a health care hoax site
Bogus COVID-19 Sites
The coronavirus crisis has highlighted the popularity of the hundreds of sites that publish health care hoaxes and misinformation regularly. At least 138 such sites in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany and Italy are publishing false claims about the coronavirus, Newsguard’s Coronavirus Misinformation Tracking Center has found. But these sites don’t promote falsehoods and fake “cures” just for the thrill of it. They’re peddling misinformation for profit, and there’s a lot of money to be made from it.
Newsguard found eight American websites—including the Naturalnews.com network, which has
54 domains such as Factcheck.news—that promote their own products as cures or remedies for the novel coronavirus. The harmless-sounding Healthimpactnews.com advertises coconut oil in an article that claims the oil destroys coronavirus. Naturalhealth365.com is selling air fresheners to fight coronavirus. Mercola.com says an antioxidant called quercetin will boost readers’ immune systems. And you can buy it on the site.
Alex Jones’ Infowars is seizing on the panic with a huge ad that reads “OTHERS ARE SOLD OUT!” and offers a four-week supply of “Patriot Food Supply.” Jones—the conspiracy theorist known for his persistent claim that the Sandy Hook shooting never happened—also sells colloidal (liquid) silver, which the FDA warns can permanently turn humans’ skin, nails and gums grayish-blue. This and all of Jones’ sketchy health products, including a toothpaste he says can cure the virus, are available on Amazon, too. Naturalnews.com’s 54 domains (with deceptive names like Washingtonposted. news and Pandemic. news) are posting blatantly false, harmful content (one recent story accused Sacramento County officials of trying purposely to spread the disease) aimed at scaring readers— and selling “Military-grade” masks in ads alongside these articles.
In Germany, France and Italy, this kind of marketing happens less
“At least 138 sites in the U.S. and Europe are publishing false claims.”
frequently. That is because, according to the EU regulation on health claims, the health information provided by supplement retailers must be based on generally accepted scientific data and thus be substantiated. Of course, these scientific findings do not yet exist for supplements related to the coronavirus.
Health care hoax sites also have another source of revenue: Major companies such as Amazon, Walmart and Berkshire Hathaway’s Geico, which (possibly unknowingly) subsidize some of the internet’s sketchiest content through algorithmic-based programmatic advertising.
For instance, ads for the AIDS Institute, a nonprofit that advocates for people with HIV/AIDS, appeared on a coronavirus conspiracy theory on Red State Watcher, an anonymously operated conservative site that is one of the 150 most popular sites in the U.S. Ads for popular, mainstream Herschel backpacks accompanied an inaccurate story about the virus’ origin on Themindunleashed.com, a site that promises to “disseminate and inspire out-ofthe-box thinking,” but actually publishes falsehoods.
As the coronavirus “infodemic” grows, so will the financial fortunes of the fraudsters running these sites.
→ Newsguard (www.newsguardtech.com) provides a human solution to misinformation by rating the reliability of news and information sites. Our ratings, based on nine objective journalistic criteria, give each website a score from zero to 100—along with a corresponding Green (generally reliable) or Red (generally unreliable) shield—and give people more context for what they read online.