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PropOrNot is a website that claims to expose
Russian propaganda The propaganda of the Russian Federation promotes views, perceptions or agendas of the government of Russia. The media include state-run outlets and online technologies, and may involve using "Soviet-style 'active measures' as an element of m ...
. It has been featured in ''
The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...
'' about Russian propaganda and the spread of
fake news Fake news is false or misleading information presented as news. Fake news often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person or entity, or making money through advertising revenue.Schlesinger, Robert (April 14, 2017)"Fake news in reality ...
. PropOrNot's methods and anonymity have received criticism.


Operations and organization

The website is written anonymously, and purports to be the arbiter of which opinions are not acceptable and which are acceptable, by either labelling or not labelling certain expressed opinions as "propaganda"; a spokesperson for the website who spoke by phone to ''The New Yorker'' was described as an American male who was "well versed in Internet culture and swore enthusiastically." The same spokesperson said that the group comprised around 40 unnamed individuals. Writing in ''Rolling Stone'',
Matt Taibbi Matthew Colin Taibbi (; born March 2, 1970) is an American author, journalist, and podcaster. He has reported on finance, media, politics, and sports. A former contributing editor for ''Rolling Stone'', he is an author of several books, co-host o ...
opined that based on "its Twitter responses to criticism of its report, PropOrNot sounded not like a group of sophisticated military analysts, but like one teenager".


Compiled list

On November 30, 2016, PropOrNot published a list of some 200 websites they classify as
Russian propaganda The propaganda of the Russian Federation promotes views, perceptions or agendas of the government of Russia. The media include state-run outlets and online technologies, and may involve using "Soviet-style 'active measures' as an element of m ...
based on "a combination of manual and automated analysis, including analysis of content, timing, technical indicators, and other reporting". The group's list includes ''
Zero Hedge 0 (zero) is a number representing an empty quantity. In place-value notation such as the Hindu–Arabic numeral system, 0 also serves as a placeholder numerical digit, which works by multiplying digits to the left of 0 by the radix, usuall ...
'', ''
Naked Capitalism Naked Capitalism is an American financial news and analysis blog that "chronicles the large scale, concerted campaign to reduce the bargaining power and pay of ordinary workers relative to investors and elite technocrats". Susan Webber, the princ ...
'', the Ron Paul Institute, ''Black Agenda Report'', ''
Truthout Truthout is a non-profit news organization which describes itself as "dedicated to providing independent reporting and commentary on a diverse range of social justice issues". Truthout's main areas of focus include mass incarceration, prison abo ...
'', ''
Truthdig Truthdig is an American news website that provides a mix of long-form articles, blog items, curated links, interviews, arts criticism and commentary on current events delivered from a politically progressive, left-leaning point of view. The site of ...
'', ''
antiwar.com Antiwar.com is a website that describes itself as devoted to non-interventionism and as opposing imperialism and war. It is a project of the Randolph Bourne#Randolph Bourne Institute, Randolph Bourne Institute. The website states that it is "fight ...
'', and many others, which the group suggests are "consistently, uncritically, and one-sidedly echoing, repeating, being used by, and redirecting their audiences to Russian official and semi-official state media". PropOrNot has said there was a Russian propaganda effort involved in propagating
fake news Fake news is false or misleading information presented as news. Fake news often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person or entity, or making money through advertising revenue.Schlesinger, Robert (April 14, 2017)"Fake news in reality ...
during the
2016 United States presidential election The 2016 United States presidential election was the 58th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. The Republican ticket of businessman Donald Trump and Indiana governor Mike Pence defeated the Democratic ticket ...
. PropOrNot has said it analyzed data from Twitter and Facebook and tracked propaganda from a disinformation campaign by Russia that had a national reach of 15 million people within the United States. PropOrNot concluded that accounts belonging to both
Russia Today RT (formerly Russia Today or Rossiya Segodnya (russian: Россия Сегодня) is a Russian state-controlled international news television network funded by the Russian government. It operates pay television and free-to-air channels ...
and
Sputnik News Sputnik (; formerly Voice of Russia and RIA Novosti, naming derived from Russian ) is a Russian state-owned news agency and radio broadcast service. It was established by the Russian government-owned news agency Rossiya Segodnya on 10 Novemb ...
promoted "false and misleading stories in their reports," and additionally magnified other false articles found on the Internet to support their propaganda effort. In 2021, a study in the ''Journal of Information Warfare'' examined the claims of PropOrNot and found evidence in support of its claims. The
content analysis Content analysis is the study of documents and communication artifacts, which might be texts of various formats, pictures, audio or video. Social scientists use content analysis to examine patterns in communication in a replicable and systematic ...
paper compared how Russian state media, and some of the outlets labelled as Russian propaganda by PropOrNot, addressed certain foreign policy topics such as Russia, Syria, Iran, Venezuela, and NATO. The study found that there was a strong correlation between the narratives promoted by
Russia Today RT (formerly Russia Today or Rossiya Segodnya (russian: Россия Сегодня) is a Russian state-controlled international news television network funded by the Russian government. It operates pay television and free-to-air channels ...
and
Sputnik News Sputnik (; formerly Voice of Russia and RIA Novosti, naming derived from Russian ) is a Russian state-owned news agency and radio broadcast service. It was established by the Russian government-owned news agency Rossiya Segodnya on 10 Novemb ...
, and those promoted by selected alternative media outlets, such as
Zero Hedge 0 (zero) is a number representing an empty quantity. In place-value notation such as the Hindu–Arabic numeral system, 0 also serves as a placeholder numerical digit, which works by multiplying digits to the left of 0 by the radix, usuall ...
, "New Cold War",
Global Research Global Research may refer to: * Global Research Alliance, a New Delhi organization promoting the Millennium Development Goals through R&D * GE Global Research, R&D division of General Electric General Electric Company (GE) is an American mu ...
, and "The Daily Sheeple".


Criticism

PropOrNot's methods and anonymity have received criticism from publications such as ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'', ''
The Intercept ''The Intercept'' is an American left-wing news website founded by Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, Laura Poitras and funded by billionaire eBay co-founder Pierre Omidyar. Its current editor is Betsy Reed. The publication initially reported ...
'', and as well as ''
Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) is a progressive left-leaning media critique organization based in New York City. The organization was founded in 1986 by Jeff Cohen and Martin A. Lee. FAIR monitors American news media for bias, inaccura ...
.''
Andrew Cockburn Andrew Myles Cockburn ( ; born 7 January 1947) is a British journalist and the Washington, D.C., editor of '' Harper's Magazine''. Early life Born in the London suburb of Willesden in 1947, Cockburn grew up in County Cork, Ireland. His father ...
, Washington editor for '' Harper's'', was sharply critical of ''The Washington Post''s decision to put the story on its front page, calling the article a "sorry piece of trash." Writers in ''
The Intercept ''The Intercept'' is an American left-wing news website founded by Glenn Greenwald, Jeremy Scahill, Laura Poitras and funded by billionaire eBay co-founder Pierre Omidyar. Its current editor is Betsy Reed. The publication initially reported ...
'', ''
Fortune Fortune may refer to: General * Fortuna or Fortune, the Roman goddess of luck * Luck * Wealth * Fortune, a prediction made in fortune-telling * Fortune, in a fortune cookie Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''The Fortune'' (1931 film) ...
'', and ''
Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first kno ...
'' challenged ''The Washington Post'' for including a report by an organization with no reputation for fact-checking (such as PropOrNot itself) in an article on "fake news." Writing for ''The Intercept'', journalists
Glenn Greenwald Glenn Edward Greenwald (born March 6, 1967) is an American journalist, author and lawyer. In 2014, he cofounded ''The Intercept'', of which he was an editor until he resigned in October 2020. Greenwald subsequently started publishing on Substac ...
and Ben Norton were particularly critical of the inclusion of ''
Naked Capitalism Naked Capitalism is an American financial news and analysis blog that "chronicles the large scale, concerted campaign to reduce the bargaining power and pay of ordinary workers relative to investors and elite technocrats". Susan Webber, the princ ...
'' on the list of "useful idiots" for Russian propagandists. Writing in ''
The New Yorker ''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
'',
Adrian Chen Adrian Chen (; born November 23, 1984) is an American blogger, and former staff writer at ''The New Yorker''. Chen joined Gawker in November 2009 as a night shift editor, graduating from an internship position at ''Slate'', and has written extensi ...
said that he had been previously contacted by the organization, but had chosen not to follow up with them. Looking more carefully into their methodology, he argued that PropOrNot's criteria for establishing propaganda - which included critical commentary of the United States, the European Union and NATO - were so broad that they could have included "not only Russian state-controlled media organizations, such as Russia Today, but nearly every news outlet in the world, including the ''Post'' itself" on their list.
Eliot Higgins Eliot Ward Higgins (born January 1979), who previously wrote under the pseudonym Brown Moses, is a British citizen journalist and former blogger, known for using open sources and social media for investigations. He is the founder of Bellingcat, ...
, founder of the open-source journalism website
Bellingcat Bellingcat (stylised as bellngcat) is a Netherlands-based investigative journalism group that specialises in fact-checking and open-source intelligence (OSINT). It was founded by British journalist and former blogger Eliot Higgins in July 2014 ...
, referred to the methodology report as "pretty amateur" and told Chen: "I think it should have never been an article on any news site of any note." In December 2016, after receiving criticism, ''The Washington Post'' appended an "Editor's Note" to its article in response to the criticism of PropOrNot's list of websites. The note read, "''The Post'', which did not name any of the sites, does not itself vouch for the validity of PropOrNot's findings regarding any individual media outlet, nor did the article purport to do so."


See also

*
2016 United States election interference by Russia The Russian government interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election with the goals of harming the campaign of Hillary Clinton, boosting the candidacy of Donald Trump, and increasing political and social discord in the United States. Acc ...
*
Hamilton 68 The Alliance for Securing Democracy (ASD) is a non-partisan transatlantic national security advocacy group formed in July 2017 with the stated aim of countering efforts by Russia to undermine democratic institutions in the United States and Europe. ...


References


External links

*{{Official website, http://www.propornot.com/p/home.html American political websites 2016 establishments in the United States Organizations based in the United States Organizations established in 2016 Propaganda in Russia