How to Protect Yourself from the Proliferation of Media Slime

Heidi Siegmund Cuda reports on the acceleration of fake news sites and how best to practice 'news hygiene' for yourself

Photo: Andriy Popov/Alamy

“I've already in my mind decided the media is not going to get it right. When they do: celebrate.”—David Pepper, democratic strategist/author

Let’s start with some good news: exposing fake news is getting easier as media watchdogs and government agencies become savvier and faster at identifying the characteristics of propaganda websites.

When the EU DisinfoLab published its exposé on a Russia-based network that cloned authentic media outlets — so-called Doppelganger sites — it helped spur a series of regulatory actions to smoke out malign influence operations.

For the average media consumer, it prompted one simple but very important question to ask: who benefits from this content?

If the answer is Russia, then you can bet you’re staring down a rabbit hole of disinformation. 

A clone site will depict Ukraine as a failed and corrupt Nazi state, it will encourage fearmongering, and it will often prop up two shiny ‘heroes’ — Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. 

This knowledge is useful when navigating the treachery of the internet, but so are concrete consequences. 

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Russians Sanctioned

The US just sanctioned two Russian nationals who they allege are behind a ‘Doppelganger’ cyber influence campaign.