Fooled by a fake gay

Yesterday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's spokesperson, Christina Pushaw, best recognizable for her smearing opponents of Florida’s anti-LGBTQ “Don’t Tell Gay” law as being “pro-grooming,” tweeted out a screenshot of what she claimed was an article from The Washington Post.

“More cutting edge journalism from the 49-year-old Washington Post activist infamous for showing up masked on random people’s doorsteps and sliding into the DMs of TikTok teenagers,” tweeted Pushaw, referencing the screenshot containing the headline, “This dog is the new tackle of online homophobia,” and referring to journalist Taylor Lorenz. Unfortunately for Pushaw, not only is Lorenz not 49 years old, but the article itself is not actual. It’s a total fabrication.

Countless people pointed out that the article was not real, which inevitably brought out the most “I’m not owned” response achievable from Pushaw’s defenders: But doesn’t it speak more about the media and the current articulate of the nature that people can no longer differentiate between satire and reality? And the fact that the writer is Taylor Lorenz, who might actually write something like this.”

*sigh*

But first, just because it’s a

Why were we fooled by the fake Syria blog?

Amid all the force in Syria - good over 1,000 people feared killed, according to human rights groups, and more than 10,000 people arrested - why is so much attention being paid to a fake blog which purported to be the work of a "Gay Girl in Damascus"?

First, because for us journalists, hoaxes that we collapse for are a cause of deep embarrassment and a reason for some serious soul-searching.

Second, because many thousands of people wanted to believe in "Amina", the fake blogger, and it's worth asking why.

Third, because it was a real mystery, and now it's been solved - and there is a perennial fascination with mysteries.

Here are some of my thoughts. (And yes, I apologise for having been taken in by the hoax, and I apologise for having linked to the "Gay Girl" website from this blog and from Facebook and Twitter.)

There's nothing new, alas, about journalists falling for hoaxes. Forty years ago, Clifford Irving fooled everyone with a fake autobiography of the reclusive tycoon Howard Hughes. In the 1980s, fake Hitler diaries were published - again, many journalists were left with egg on their faces.

What's new about the earth of s

How to avoid being fooled by fake news and false information

Information, stories or hoaxes created to deliberately misinform or deceive readers/viewers/listeners. The story itself might be fabricated, with no verifiable facts, sources or quotes or some elements or facts might be accurate but presented in a false or misleading way.

Many people now fetch news from social media sites and networks and often it can be difficult to tell whether stories are credible or not. Information overload and a general lack of understanding about how the internet works has also contributed to an raise in fake news or hoax stories. Social media sites can play a big part in increasing the reach of these type of stories.

There are a number of things to watch out for when evaluating content online.

1. Check the source

Check the source of the story, do you recognise the website? Is it a credible/reliable source? If you are unfamiliar with the site, look in the about section or detect out more information about the author, date, period, URL.

2. Look beyond the headline

Check the entire article. To grab attention, misleading information often uses sensationalist or shocking clickbait headlines – some

Hoax: From the Hitler diaries to homosexual girl in Damascus

Has the web made it easier to fool the earth and journalists in particular? The reply seems obvious after a number of recent web hoaxes.

The famous Fresh Yorker cartoon, external now needs updating to "on the internet nobody knows you're not a Syrian lesbian", after the gay chronicler of the Syrian uprising turned out to be a bearded American living in Edinburgh.

As plenty of reporters include discovered in this and previous cases, it is getting ever harder to verify the culture of someone who comes to you with a superb story. The web provides a brilliant platform for a dissident in a repressive state or a whistleblower inside a corrupt organization to tell the world the facts without revealing their own identity.

But in the online world, how complete reporters go about the process of checking that such sources are genuine? In the case of the same-sex attracted girl in Damascus, journalists did tote out interviews with the blogger, but they were conducted via email. Oh for the days before the web, traditionalists cry, when reporters went out and met people face to tackle and such hoaxes were impossible.

Not so fast. Just take a

A Twitter user fooled Trump by setting up false accounts and raising $7,384 for the non-existent ‘Gay Voices for Trump’ organization

With a series of counterfeit Twitter profiles impersonating President Donald Trump's inner circle, a 21-year-old was reportedly able to raise $7,384 in a GoFundMe campaign for a bogus nonprofit, "Gay Voices for Trump."

Pennsylvania's Josh Hall posed as both the president's brother and sister, along with his son Barron, according to a report from The New York Times. Each of the accounts he created was suspended by Twitter.

Hall reportedly created an account pretending to be Elizabeth Trump Grau, the president's sister. When another Twitter user posted a story about Trump Grau's new account, Trump said on November 20, "Thank you Elizabeth, LOVE!"

Hall also reportedly created a series of accounts imitating Robert Trump, the president's brother. The Twitter account @BigRobTrump had 25,000 followers before being shut down, while @UncleRobTrump ballooned to 77,000, according to the report.

Hall used some of the attention to launch a fundraiser for an organization that reportedly didn't exist, calling it "Gay Voices for Trump."

The now-fin