Fake Economist Cover Used by Russia to Create WWIII Fears
Plus: How Bogus Trump Post on Truth Social Duped the Right and Left; Iran Ramps Up Disinformation After Trump Win; False Election Claims Hit 100
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Today:
Russian sources falsely claim that The Economist warns that U.S. support of Ukraine will cause World War III
A screenshot of a fake Trump post on Truth Social dupes both the right and the left
Commentary: How Iran uses disinformation as a malign state strategy, alongside assassination
NewsGuard debunks the 100th election myth for 2024
And More …
Today’s newsletter was edited by Eric Effron and Sofia Rubinson.
1. Pro-Kremlin Sources Cite Fake Economist Cover Story to Fearmonger World War III
By Eva Maitland
What happened: Pro-Kremlin sources are sharing a fabricated cover and quote from The Economist (NewsGuard Trust Score: 100/100) indicating that the influential U.K. weekly magazine stated that the U.S. has brought the world to the brink of global war.
The claim was pushed after U.S. President Joe Biden authorized Ukraine to use American long-range missiles for strikes inside Russia.
A closer look: The fabricated cover includes the word “APOCALYPSE,” along with an image of Trump and Putin face to face, and with missiles on an all-red background.
Referring to the cover, misinformation sources on X, Facebook, Instagram, and Tumblr declared: “‘Allowing missile strikes deep into Russia is the beginning of World War III,’ warns the iconic prophetic magazine The Economist.”
Telegram channel @GolosMordora, which is known to be affiliated with Russian intelligence services, and The Pravda network (Trust Score: 7.5/100), a network of more than 80 anonymously run sites amplifying pro-Kremlin disinformation in dozens of languages, also advanced the claim in English and Russian.
Actually: The Economist did not publish such a cover or describe Biden’s Ukrainian arms decision as “the beginning of World War III.”
The cover, which does not appear on The Economist’s website, contains inconsistencies and signs of fabrication: It does not have a date, as Economist covers do, and it contains spelling and grammatical mistakes. (One article is listed on the cover as “America’s pumbed-up [sic] economy.”)
The Economist did not respond to a NewsGuard request for comment.
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2. No, Trump Did Not Mock MSNBC “Morning Joe” Hosts in Truth Social Post
A screenshot of a post purportedly from Donald Trump’s Truth Social account that actually was never posted by Trump or anyone else on Truth Social about MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” made the rounds on social media this week, deceiving both pro- and anti-Trump users. Such fabricated posts are emerging as a simple yet highly effective way to advance false claims, especially as Americans increasingly silo themselves on social media platforms catering to their viewpoints.
What happened: On Nov. 18, “Morning Joe” hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski announced that they met with Trump at his Mar-a-Lago residence, sparking backlash from their largely liberal audience. Moments later, a fake screenshot of a Truth Social post supposedly written by Trump spread widely on social media.
The fabricated post stated: “This morning, ‘Morning’ Joe and Mika, who owe their careers to me, went on their show and claimed to have met with me. They made it sound like we had a summit. The truth is, Joe begged to meet with me after our Big Win, and when I finally agreed, he approached me like a scolded dog. He should consider himself lucky that I didn’t have him thrown out of beautiful Mar-a-Lago. Mika was charming, as usual.”
A closer look: This post, while convincingly styled, never appeared on Trump’s account. Yet it quickly went viral.
Liberal Facebook page “Being Liberal” posted the fake Truth Social post alongside the text, “@joescarborough @mikebrzezinski have no shame - totally deserved Trump’s treatment. Ignore @morningjoe.” The post received 730 reactions and 390 comments.
New York Young Republican Club member Michael J. Morrison posted the fabricated Trump post on X, captioned: “President Trump on his meeting with Joe and Mika. How can you not love this man!” The post garnered 135,000 views and 4,300 likes in one day.
Tricks of their trade: Though it is not clear what software was used to create the fake Truth Social post, several free websites allow users to customize fake yet remarkably visually accurate social media posts.
One such website, Typefully.com, enables users to create believable X posts with just a few keystrokes. We know because we did it here:
The best way to determine the authenticity of a post is to check the original account where it was supposedly published.
Click here to find out more about NewsGuard Trust Scores and our process for rating websites. You can download NewsGuard’s browser extension, which displays NewsGuard Trust Score icons next to links on search engines, social media feeds, and other platforms by clicking here.
3. Commentary: For Iran, Disinformation Comes Just Behind Assassination
By Gordon Crovitz, NewsGuard co-CEO
An excerpt from a commentary originally published in The Hill:
Until recently, Iran has been the distant third among disinformation superpowers, with Russia and China ahead in spreading false claims attacking the U.S. and sowing divisions in the country. With the election of Donald Trump, Tehran has accelerated its efforts, putting disinformation just behind assassination as a malign state strategy.
Consider how the mullahs responded on Nov. 6, the day after Trump was elected: They used social media to reissue their threat to kill Trump and launched a disinformation campaign falsely claiming that Trump views Iran as “a powerful country.”
Hours after Trump was declared the victor, the social media account on Telegram used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps posted a video showing Trump in a sniper’s crosshairs, ending with the crack of a gunshot and Trump spitting up blood.
Continue reading this commentary at The Hill.
If you see something, say something
If you see or hear something that you think may be provably false, please alert NewsGuard via realitycheck@newsguardtech.com and we'll do our best to get to the bottom of it. Note: Tips should not include content that you simply disagree with, however strongly.
4. False Election Claims Hit 100
By Sam Howard
Who’s counting? NewsGuard last week cataloged its 100th false claim about the U.S. presidential election circulating online since Sept. 1, 2024. A striking 22 percent were advanced through artificial intelligence or other digital trickery.
Throughout this election season, NewsGuard analysts have debunked falsehoods from Haitian migrants illegally voting in Georgia to Kamala Harris secretly using a teleprompter during a town hall, to the assassination attempts on Donald Trump being staged to gain sympathy votes.
Here are top takeaways from our 2024 U.S. Election Misinformation Monitoring Center:
Artificial intelligence: NewsGuard found that 22 percent of the false claims were advanced through AI-generated deepfakes or other digital manipulations, including the claim that Kamala Harris paralyzed a 13-year-old girl in a 2011 hit-and-run, which relied on deepfake victim testimony.
Election denialism: Twenty-nine percent of the 100 false claims in NewsGuard’s database were about election fraud or other forms of election-rigging. And, in contrast with the 2020 election, the voting fraud claims came from the political left, especially as it became clear the night of the election that Trump was heading to victory.
Foreign interference: Twenty-four percent of the false claims originated as state-sponsored narratives. Two of these claims emerged from Iran, while the rest were Russian in origin, including the claim that Tim Walz “groomed” a former foreign exchange student when he was a teacher in 2004.
What’s next: The Trump transition. We are already tracking false or egregiously misleading claims — from both the political right and left — about Trump’s plans for when he’s back in the White House. And if election season is any indication, there will be no shortage of misinformation.
AI Content Farm Tracker: 1,121 Sites and Counting
AI content farms are taking over the internet, and NewsGuard analysts track their spread. Read more about AI content farms, and how they are proliferating:
Reality Check is produced by Co-CEOs Steven Brill and Gordon Crovitz, and the NewsGuard team.
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