(d) None of these 'cures' can treat or prevent coronavirus.The other domains are all in the Red-rated network. (c) is affiliated with Science News magazine and passes all of NewsGuard's credibility and transparency criteria.(b) The false theory that the coronavirus is a biological weapon developed at a military lab in Wuhan has dominated misinformation in all five countries.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. NewsGuard provides a human solution to misinformation by rating the reliability of news and information sites. Get the Misinformation Monitor in Your Inbox Put differently, social media is a misinformation force multiplier, NewsGuard's Washington Correspondent Gabby Deutch argued in Wired. The takeaway is how easily misinformation can be amplified by even a small group of unreliable sites that share their claims on social media. Why we should care: One story that originated on an obscure Indian website - and that's been debunked by PolitiFact,, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation - ended up being viewed and shared by tens of thousands of Americans because unreliable news sources regularly follow and republish each other, with no regard for the facts. Red State Watcher is among the 150 most popular sites in the U.S., and its Facebook page - which does not state whether it is affiliated with the Trump reelection campaign - has more than 4,200,000 followers, though NewsGuard did not find the coronavirus hoax article shared on this Facebook page.➔ Then,, an anonymously operated conservative site that regularly republishes false stories, picked up ZeroHedge's post the same day. received over 24,500 social media engagements since its publication. The headline: 'Did China Steal Coronavirus From Canada And Weaponize It?' The post on ZeroHedge - ranked in the top 900 sites in the U.S. ZeroHedge added a hint of speculation to its post rather than copying the article verbatim.political and financial blog that peddles all kinds of conspiracies, reposted Great Game India's story the day after Great Game India concocted it. According to NewsWhip, a social media analytics platform, as ofMarch 19, the article has received only 1,600 social media engagements since its publication. This wasn't Great Game India's only coronavirus conspiracy (another tied the virus, somehow, to AIDS), but this one got picked up. ➔ published an article on January 26 called 'Coronavirus Bioweapon – How China Stole Coronavirus From Canada And Weaponized It,' which claimed two Chinese spies smuggled the virus from a Winnipeg lab to a Wuhan military laboratory, where the virus 'leaked' out and began infecting people. Yet one of its stories made its way to a popular American political site. The site gets hardly any engagement (likes, shares, or comments) on social media.

NewsGuard traced one increasingly popular coronavirus hoax to its source:, an Indian website that bills itself as a 'Journal on Geopolitics and International Relations' and publishes conspiracy theories on topics ranging from Indian politics to the 2014 crash of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 in Ukraine. And tracing it back to its source becomes near-impossible. ➔ That way, the false claim then gets recirculated on several unreliable sites. ➔ Popular unreliable sites don't operate in a vacuum - they often take misinformation from smaller, more obscure websites. Suppose you and millions of others see a conspiracy theory about coronavirus spreading. The Facebook page associated with Red State Watcher - which published a coronavirus conspiracy theory that first appeared on an unknown Indian website - has over 4 million followers and is framed as a platform for President Trump’s supporters. How an obscure Indian hoax site created a conspiracy theory that might reach millions of Americans Read to the end of the next section for the answers. Which of these widely-shared coronavirus cures is legitimate? Which of these websites publishes legitimate science and health news?ģ. Which coronavirus conspiracy theory is the most popular in the U.S., Italy, Germany, France, and the U.K.?Ī) Bill Gates owns the patent to the COVID-19 virusī) The coronavirus is a biological weapon developed at a Chinese laboratory in WuhanĬ) The explanation for the coronavirus is simple: It's not actually a coronavirus, and instead a result of 5G wireless technology, which causes flu-like symptomsĭ) African migrants brought the coronavirus to Italy and caused the outbreak in EuropeĢ. 132 websites and counting are pushing coronavirus conspiracy theoriesġ.

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