Friday, September 28, 2018

TMZ-us.com

There's a new "fake news" website called TMZ-us.com.  (Archive here.)

According to WHOIS records, it was registered September 20, 2018.  The WHOIS page also says it's registered to "WhoisGuard Protected."  Here is what the homepage looks like:


Some of the the stories on the fake TMZ site are legit.  For example, their story about Childish Gambino's injury is copy-and-pasted from the real TMZ site.  Other articles on the homepage are outright hoaxes, like this false claim that Hulk Hogan passed away:


(Also, the greatest wrestler of all time is Bret Hart, so that tells you right away the story is sketchy.)

My suspicion is that TMZ-us.com is related to us-NBCNews.com.  That latter site was recently documented by LeadStories.  The site us-NBCNews.com was also registered on September 20, 2018, and it's also registered to "WhoisGuard Protected."

Thursday, September 27, 2018

Another "USAReally" spammer on Reddit: /u/dukethelord

There was a viral Reddit post last week that described how some accounts were spamming "USAReally.com" links in /r/The_Donald.

The author, /u/DivestTrump, included an archived snapshot of who had posted links to USAReally.com.  The snapshot showed five results, and I realized one of the accounts, /u/dukethelord, was probably a spammer. 

So, here is more of dukethelord's posting history:

Links to USAReally.com:
https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/9e2t97/be_a_real_american_get_vaccinated_and_forget/
https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/9exvfm/two_inmates_wounded_due_to_negligence_in_nebraska/
https://www.reddit.com/r/TwoXChromosomes/comments/9exyqc/miss_america_2019_how_can_we_measure_beauty_in/
https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/9ffymn/neocon_mistakes_geopolitics_for_professional/
https://www.reddit.com/r/The_Donald/comments/9fgkbz/a_cash_bonus_for_the_health_crisis/
https://www.reddit.com/r/news/comments/9fh6jx/new_developments_in_dallas_shooting_arrest/
https://www.reddit.com/r/democrats/comments/9fii1t/how_bella_ciao_became_an_antitrump_ballad/
https://www.reddit.com/r/geopolitics/comments/9gsq6j/the_bad_romance_between_america_and_the_hague/

Links to Geotus.band:
https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/9hfcd2/bill_gates_warns_of_imminent_global_pandemic_again/

My impression is most of these links were spam-filtered.  The only thread to get any upvotes was the one in /r/TwoXChromosomes.  (So perhaps a moderator approved it manually, or it slipped through the spam filter.)

Saturday, September 15, 2018

Suspected Russian Reddit accounts, in chronological order

I took the information from here: https://www.reddit.com/wiki/suspiciousaccounts.  I tried to keep my mistakes to a minimum, but there may still be some minor errors.

That being said, the main purpose of this exercise was to highlight any patterns or outliers.  (All accounts listed after the jump.)

Thursday, September 13, 2018

Brinkwire.com

Come on, Brinkwire.com, who are you trying to fool?

Your article from September 13, 2018, is titled: "Don’t buy the iPhone XS or XR until you’ve checked out these 3 deals"

A BGR article from September 13, 2018, is titled: "Don’t buy the iPhone XS or XR until you’ve checked out these 3 deals"

Your opening:
The new iPhones are almost here, and come Friday, you’ll be able to preorder two of them, including the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max. The iPhone XR, the handset most people will want to buy this year, will be about a month late to the party. But, before you decide anywhere from $749 to $1,449 for one of the three new iPhones, you should be aware of the following three deals.
The opening from BGR.com:
The new iPhones are almost here, and come Friday, you’ll be able to preorder two of them, including the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max. The iPhone XR, the handset most people will want to buy this year, will be about a month late to the party. But, before you decide anywhere from $749 to $1,449 for one of the three new iPhones, you should be aware of the following three deals.
You're using somebody else's content, and your site has AdSense ads?  That's just sketchy.

(For reference, the AdSense ID is ca-pub-7472567035539715)


Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Some Patreon numbers

As of early morning, September 12th.
I wonder how these numbers will change over time.

Chapo Trap House
23,464 patrons ($104,768 per month)
https://www.patreon.com/chapotraphouse

Philip DeFranco
13,987 patrons
https://www.patreon.com/DeFranco

Dr Jordan B Peterson
9,545 patrons
https://www.patreon.com/jordanbpeterson

The Rubin Report
4,679 patrons
https://www.patreon.com/rubinreport

Dick Masterson
3,882 patrons ($22,297 per month)
https://www.patreon.com/thedickshow

Sargon of Akkad
3,576 patrons ($12,136 per month)
https://www.patreon.com/sargon

Quillette
3,028 patrons ($17,418 per month)
https://www.patreon.com/Quillette

Shaun
1,885 patrons ($4,065 per video)
https://www.patreon.com/shaun_jen

Timcast
1,642 patrons
https://www.patreon.com/timcast

Styxhexenhammer666
1,235 patrons ($4,265 per month)
https://www.patreon.com/Styxhexenhammer666

Bret Weinstein
1,143 patrons
https://www.patreon.com/bretweinstein

Scott Adams
863 patrons
https://www.patreon.com/scottadamssays

Candace Owens
782 patrons
https://www.patreon.com/candaceowens

Zoƫ Quinn
685 patrons ($1,847 per month)
https://www.patreon.com/zoe

Laurie Penny
619 patrons ($3,811 per month)
https://www.patreon.com/lauriepenny

Roaming Millennial
475 patrons
https://www.patreon.com/roamingmillennial

Dead Pundits Society
410 patrons
https://www.patreon.com/Deadpundits

The Katie Halper Show
378 patrons
https://www.patreon.com/thekatiehalpershow

Hard Bastard
193 patrons ($613 per month)
https://www.patreon.com/HardBastard

Laura Loomer
103 patrons ($742 per month)
https://www.patreon.com/lauraloomer

The International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund
92 patrons
https://www.patreon.com/intlantifadefence

Independent Man
81 patrons ($193 per month)
https://www.patreon.com/IndependentMan

Raging Golden Eagle
59 patrons ($453 per month)
https://www.patreon.com/RGE

Buttered Side Down
56 patrons ($332 per month)
https://www.patreon.com/ButteredSideDown

Men Are Good
41 patrons ($175 per video)
https://www.patreon.com/menaregood

Maddox
40 patrons ($160 per month)
https://www.patreon.com/realmaddox

Douglas Ernst
34 patrons
https://www.patreon.com/douglasernst

Allie Stuckey
18 patrons
https://www.patreon.com/alliestuckey/overview

Gaming Wildlife
6 patrons ($14 per month)
https://www.patreon.com/gamingwildlife

Rebel Grey
5 patrons ($5 per month)
https://www.patreon.com/rebelgreyswd

Rebel News
3 patrons ($10 per month)
https://www.patreon.com/rebelnews

Monday, September 3, 2018

Hail Britannica

I was watching a Silicon Valley clip on YouTube, and noticed there was a link to Encyclopedia Britannica beneath the video:


The title of the clip is "Billionaire Holocaust," and if you follow the Britannica link, you're taken to the entry about the Holocaust.  I remember hearing that YouTube planned to insert Wikipedia links beneath videos dealing with controversial topics.  In my opinion, it's much wiser to go with a non-mutable source like the Encyclopedia Britannica.