''The Exposé'' (formerly known as ''The Daily Exposé'') is a British

conspiracist A conspiracy theory is an explanation for an event or situation that invokes a conspiracy by sinister and powerful groups, often political in motivation, when other explanations are more probable.Additional sources: * * * * The term has a nega ...

website created in 2020 by Jonathan Allen-Walker. It is known for publishing

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

and anti-vaccine misinformation. The website became known internationally after Brazilian president

Jair Bolsonaro Jair Messias Bolsonaro (; born 21 March 1955) is a Brazilian politician and retired military officer who has been the 38th president of Brazil since 1 January 2019. He was elected in 2018 as a member of the Social Liberal Party, which he turn ...

cited one of its articles in a speech falsely claiming that COVID-19 vaccines could cause

AIDS Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual m ...

, and after

Chinese state media The mass media in China consists primarily of television, newspapers, radio, and magazines. Since the start of the 21st century, the Internet has also emerged as an important form of communication by media, and is under the direct supervisi ...

outlets republished one of its articles which falsely claimed that

was created by

Moderna Moderna, Inc. ( ) is an American pharmaceutical and biotechnology company based in Cambridge, Massachusetts that focuses on RNA therapeutics, primarily mRNA vaccines. These vaccines use a copy of a molecule called messenger RNA (mRNA) to produ ...

History

''The Exposé'' was created in November 2020 by Jonathan Allen-Walker, a mechanic from

Scunthorpe Scunthorpe () is an industrial town and unparished area in the unitary authority of North Lincolnshire in Lincolnshire, England of which it is the main administrative centre. Scunthorpe had an estimated total population of 82,334 in 2016. A pre ...

Lincolnshire Lincolnshire (abbreviated Lincs.) is a county in the East Midlands of England, with a long coastline on the North Sea to the east. It borders Norfolk to the south-east, Cambridgeshire to the south, Rutland to the south-west, Leicestershire ...

. In March 2021,

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

suspended the site's main account, but it created several alt accounts to evade its ban. Following its second ban, the site relied on pairs of alt accounts to avoid losing all of its followers or the ability to tweet, and accused Twitter of

censorship Censorship is the suppression of speech, public communication, or other information. This may be done on the basis that such material is considered objectionable, harmful, sensitive, or "inconvenient". Censorship can be conducted by governments ...

. As of July 2021, two of the site's alt accounts had approximately 14,000 and 18,000 followers respectively, with 65% of the site's referrals coming from Twitter.

Content

Ernie Piper of

Logically Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both Mathematical logic, formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the science of Validity (logic), deductively valid inferences or of logical truths. It is a formal science investigating h ...

, a British anti-

disinformation Disinformation is false information deliberately spread to deceive people. It is sometimes confused with misinformation, which is false information but is not deliberate. The English word ''disinformation'' comes from the application of the L ...

research organization, said that ''The Exposé'' "was unique both for producing a high volume of original content" and for " ryingto make it look like they were doing hard-hitting

investigative journalism Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years rese ...

" instead of "twisting the facts to suit conspiracy theories." Piper wrote in July 2021 that the website "has promoted a standard portfolio of COVID-denialist,

anti-vaxxer Vaccine hesitancy is a delay in acceptance, or refusal, of vaccines despite the availability of vaccine services and supporting evidence. The term covers refusals to vaccinate, delaying vaccines, accepting vaccines but remaining uncertain abou ...

, and Great Reset myths framed as breaking news" since its establishment, noting that the site's writers "often distort or misinterpret the information within the snapshots of the documents they use to push a number of conspiratorial narratives". The website has interviewed fringe figures such as anti-vaccine activist

Michael Yeadon Michael Yeadon is a British anti-vaccine activist and retired pharmacologist who attracted media attention in 2020 and 2021 for making false or unfounded claims about the COVID-19 pandemic and the safety of COVID-19 vaccines. ''The Times'' has ...

COVID-19 misinformation

In June 2021, ''The Exposé'' falsely claimed that there was a significant increase in the number of women who had

miscarriages Miscarriage, also known in medical terms as a spontaneous abortion and pregnancy loss, is the death of an embryo or fetus before it is able to survive independently. Miscarriage before 6 weeks of gestation is defined by ESHRE as biochemical lo ...

in the United Kingdom as a result of getting the

COVID-19 vaccine A COVID19 vaccine is a vaccine intended to provide acquired immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 ( COVID19). Prior to the COVID19 pandemic, an e ...

. In July 2021, ''The Exposé'' falsely claimed that

Public Health England Public Health England (PHE) was an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care in England which began operating on 1 April 2013 to protect and improve health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities. Its formation came as a ...

(PHE) data proved that more vaccinated people were dying due to COVID-19 than unvaccinated people. The website's claim was debunked by the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

Full Fact Full Fact is a British charity, based in London, which checks and corrects facts reported in the news as well as claims which circulate on social media. History and structure Full Fact was founded in 2009 by businessman Michael Samuel, the c ...

and

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency was estab ...

. The claim was later cited in a Sky News Australia broadcast by host Alan Jones and politician Craig Kelly; Sky News Australia subsequently removed the broadcast and issued a correction on its website. In October 2021, ''The Exposé'' used data published by the

UK Health Security Agency The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is a government agency in the United Kingdom, responsible since April 2021 for England-wide public health protection and infectious disease capability, and replacing Public Health England. It is an executiv ...

(UKHSA), which misleadingly indicated that COVID-19 infection rates were higher among fully-vaccinated than unvaccinated people, to falsely claim in several articles that the vaccines were not only ineffective but were also causing vaccinated people to develop

"much faster than anticipated". The articles were widely shared on social media across the world, and one such article was cited by Before It's News, a fake news website, which was subsequently used as a source by Brazilian president

in a speech. The video of Bolsonaro's speech was removed from

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

Instagram Instagram is a photo and video sharing social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. The app allows users to upload media that can be edited with filters and organized by hashtags and geographical tagging. Posts can ...

and

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

for violating their policies regarding COVID-19 vaccines. In January 2022, ''The Exposé'' promoted a conspiracy theory claiming that Germans fully vaccinated against COVID-19 "

ould Ould is an English surname and an Arabic name ( ar, ولد). In some Arabic dialects, particularly Hassaniya Arabic, ولد‎ (the patronymic, meaning "son of") is transliterated as Ould. Most Mauritanians have patronymic surnames. Notable p ...

have full blown Covid-19 vaccine induced acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) by the end of

he month He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

" In March 2022, ''The Exposé'' falsely claimed that a study proved "beyond a reasonable doubt" that COVID-19 had been created by

. The study, which was published in the ''Frontiers in Virology'' research journal, said that Moderna had patented a 19 nucleotide genetic sequence uniquely matching a part of the

SARS-CoV-2 Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2) is a strain of coronavirus that causes COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019), the respiratory illness responsible for the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The virus previously had a ...

spike protein three years prior to the pandemic, arguing it was evidence that the virus was manufactured as part of a lab leak conspiracy. The study has been widely derided for its misunderstanding of statistical likelihood, particularly as the 19 nucleotide sequence is not unique to SARS-CoV-2, and is also found in organisms like bacteria and birds. ''The Exposé'''s article was republished by

outlets, including ''

China Daily ''China Daily'' () is an English-language daily newspaper owned by the Central Propaganda Department of the Chinese Communist Party. Overview ''China Daily'' has the widest print circulation of any English-language newspaper in China. T ...

'' and ''

Global Times The ''Global Times'' () is a daily tabloid newspaper under the auspices of the Chinese Communist Party's flagship newspaper, the ''People's Daily'', commenting on international issues from a Chinese ultra-nationalistic perspective. The publi ...

,'' and was shared on Twitter by a counselor for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs' Department of Information. In July 2022, ''The Exposé'' posted a graph indicating that 94% of deaths due to COVID-19 in England between April 1 and May 31 were among those who were vaccinated. The graph was widely shared on social media. Reuters and

Lead Stories This list of fact-checking websites includes websites that provide fact-checking services about both political and non-political subjects. The Reporters' Lab at Duke University maintains a database of fact-checking organizations that is manage ...

found that the statistic by itself was misleading as it failed to acknowledge the country's vaccination rate. In September 2022, ''The Exposé'' falsely claimed that the COVID-19 vaccines contain

graphene oxide An oxide () is a chemical compound that contains at least one oxygen atom and one other element in its chemical formula. "Oxide" itself is the dianion of oxygen, an O2– (molecular) ion. with oxygen in the oxidation state of −2. Most of the ...

Operation

Ernie Piper of Logically wrote in July 2021 that the website's finances and number of contributors, and whether it had permanent staff besides Allen-Walker, were "unclear". The website has run monthly fundraising campaigns since February 2021 on its home page, Twitter and Telegram, with sporadic campaigns on other platforms such as

Buy Me a Coffee Buy Me a Coffee (BMC) is an American crowdfunding company based in San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural cen ...

and GoFundMe.

References

External links