Conspiracy & Disinformation
How conspiracy theories and disinformation spread, who profits, and the damage they do offline.
Conspiracy & DisinformationHe Called a School Massacre a Hoax. A Texas Court Cut His Penalty.
A Texas appeals court on Aug. 21, 2026, threw out most of a roughly $50 million judgment against Infowars founder Alex Jones over his false claim that the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre was staged, capping the punitive damages owed to two grieving parents.
A Lie Said France’s First Lady Was Born a Man. It Reached a Delaware Court.
A false claim that France's first lady, Brigitte Macron, was born male spread for years online. A Paris court convicted 10 people over it in January; on July 27, a Delaware judge weighed the Macrons' defamation suit against Candace Owens.
Dozens Are Dead in Kashmir. Online, the Video Can't Be Trusted.
In late July and early August 2026, weeks of election unrest killed at least 40 people in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Amnesty International said, as authorities cut communications. In the blackout, AI-generated and recycled videos spread online.
Dozens Drowned Swimming to Ceuta. A Misread Court Ruling Went Viral First.
From July 30, 2026, some 72,000 people rushed to swim into Spain's enclave of Ceuta after a court ruling was recast online as an open border. Dozens drowned; officials blame social-media disinformation on Instagram, Facebook and TikTok.
- Conspiracy & Disinformation
A Rumor Said the Border Was Open. Dozens Died at Ceuta.
False online claims that Spain had thrown open its border helped drive tens of thousands toward the enclave of Ceuta in late July 2026, in a surge Spanish authorities say killed at least 72 people. Officials in Spain and Morocco blamed misleading posts on TikTok, WhatsApp and other platforms.
- Conspiracy & Disinformation
Online Lies Spread. Malaysia’s Rohingya Were Driven Out, Then Detained.
Since May 2026, fabricated and AI-generated posts have cast Malaysia's Rohingya refugees as invaders, fact-checkers found. On July 27, after evictions, police detained more than 100 who had sought U.N. protection.
- Conspiracy & Disinformation
Vaccine Lies Went Viral. Measles Came Back in Record Numbers.
By July 24, 2026, the United States had logged 2,318 measles cases — already more than in all of 2025 — as childhood vaccination slips and false claims about vaccines circulate online. A former C.D.C. official says the 'rise of misinformation' has cost lives.
- Conspiracy & Disinformation
The Evidence Came Out in Court. The Charlie Kirk Conspiracy Theories Didn't Stop.
Over five days in July 2026, a Utah court laid out DNA, surveillance video and confession messages in the killing of activist Charlie Kirk. Online, conspiracy theories about his September 2025 death kept spreading regardless.
- Conspiracy & Disinformation
Trump Took Election Conspiracies to Primetime. His Own Documents Undercut Him.
On July 16, 2026, President Trump used a primetime White House address to revive debunked conspiracy theories about rigged voting machines, Chinese hacking and noncitizen voters. The intelligence he declassified concluded U.S. election systems ‘would be difficult to manipulate.’
- Conspiracy & Disinformation
The Bandit Invasion That Only Happened Online
False online rumors of bandit invasions and school attacks fueled panic and a deadly mob killing in Nigeria in mid-2026. On 7 July a security watchdog warned that AI-driven disinformation now threatens national stability.
- Conspiracy & Disinformation
A Deepfake Landed in Slovakia's Silent Hours
Two days before Slovakia's 2023 election, a fabricated audio clip of a liberal leader discussing vote-rigging spread during the media blackout. Fact-checkers identified it as AI-generated.
- Conspiracy & Disinformation
The Video They Raced to Delete
In May 2020, a 26-minute clip called Plandemic pushed false COVID-19 claims to millions before platforms scrambled to remove it. It became an early study in how sites struggle to contain a viral health hoax.
- Conspiracy & Disinformation
The Verse Edited Into a Riot
A deceptively edited 2016 video of Jakarta's Christian governor, Ahok, spread online, fueled mass protests and helped send him to prison for blasphemy. The man who altered the clip was later convicted himself.
- Conspiracy & Disinformation
The Testing Ground in Nairobi and Abuja
The 2018 Cambridge Analytica revelations exposed how the firm worked Kenyan and Nigerian elections. Both governments moved to investigate foreign meddling in their votes.
- Conspiracy & Disinformation
A 5G Hoax Torched Phone Towers in a Pandemic
A false theory linking 5G to COVID-19 spread on Facebook and messaging apps, driving a wave of arson attacks on UK phone masts in spring 2020. About 77 sites were damaged, many not even 5G-enabled.
- Conspiracy & Disinformation
The Kremlin's Quiet Hand on the Ballot
Ahead of Germany's February 2025 election, NewsGuard catalogued 22 false claims, some tied to Russian operations aimed at boosting the far-right AfD. Separate analyses found platform algorithms amplifying pro-AfD content.
- Conspiracy & Disinformation
The Firehose on WhatsApp
Days before Brazil's 2018 runoff, the newspaper Folha revealed a business-funded scheme flooding WhatsApp with disinformation for the winning candidate. Researchers called it a test of the platform's danger to democracy.
- Conspiracy & Disinformation
The Ebola Clinics They Came to Burn
During the 2018-2019 Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo, rumors that clinics harvested organs or that the virus was a political ruse fueled attacks that forced treatment centers to close.
- Conspiracy & Disinformation
India's Billion-Voter Election Met the Deepfake
During India's 2024 general election, AI deepfakes revived a politician who died in 2018 and faked Bollywood endorsements. Surveys, the Election Commission and a WhatsApp tipline all scrambled to respond.
- Conspiracy & Disinformation
The Chains That Chose a President
Colombia's 2018 presidential race was saturated by disinformation forwarded through encrypted WhatsApp chains, from doctored photos to false rumors that fact-checkers could not reach.
- Conspiracy & Disinformation
The Cabinets That Weren't Children
In July 2020 a QAnon-fueled rumor claimed the furniture retailer Wayfair was trafficking children in high-priced cabinets. The baseless theory flooded the U.S. human-trafficking hotline, straining help for real victims.
- Conspiracy & Disinformation
The Buzzers Who Drowned an Election
Indonesia's communication ministry counted 700 election-related hoaxes in a single month in 2019. Paid 'buzzers' running fake accounts amplified religious and ethnic smears against both presidential candidates.
- Conspiracy & Disinformation
The Price of Broadcasting a Stolen-Election Myth
Fox News agreed in April 2023 to pay Dominion Voting Systems $787.5 million to settle a defamation suit over false claims that its machines rigged the 2020 U.S. election.
- Conspiracy & Disinformation
Old Photos Passed Off as Fresh Blood
A 2018 BBC investigation found images from an old domestic-violence case and a foreign road accident recirculating on Nigerian social media as proof of farmer-herder massacres, inflaming a conflict already killing thousands.
- Conspiracy & Disinformation
A Quake, a Cloud and a HAARP Hoax
After the February 2023 earthquakes killed tens of thousands in Turkey and Syria, false claims flooded social media, from a HAARP attack cloud to recycled disaster footage, hampering relief and spreading panic.
- Conspiracy & Disinformation
A Hammer Attack Recast as a Lovers' Quarrel
Hours after Paul Pelosi was beaten with a hammer in October 2022, a baseless claim that the attacker was a lover spread to millions online. Police and prosecutors said the assault was politically motivated.
- Conspiracy & Disinformation
The Night a Conspiracy Theory Walked In With a Rifle
In 2016 a man fired a rifle inside a family pizzeria because the internet told him children were caged there. What 'Pizzagate' still teaches us about online lies.
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