Tag: Alex Jones

InfoWarrior$

Fiverr accounts are charging up to $135 to publish sponsored content on conspiracy website Planet InfoWars

Alex Jones (source)

Last month, I blogged about the HuffPost’s retraction of a sponsored article it appears was part of a coordinated PR campaign to burnish the reputation of former Trump advisor Felix Sater.

The author, an Indian content marketer who goes by the name Waqas KH, was paid via freelancing website Fiverr to publish the now-retracted story.

He’s not the only one running the pay-to-publish scheme.

At least seven Fiverr accounts are offering similar services, with some accounts charging up to $135 to publish sponsored content on Planet InfoWars, a self-described “activist network” and the sister website to conspiracy news website InfoWars.

source

InfoWars and Planet InfoWars are owned by Alex Jones, once described by New York magazine as “America’s leading conspiracy theorist.”

Planet InfoWars allows paying members to contribute content, but doesn’t necessarily prohibit them from publishing sponsored content – as long as they agree not to link to unrelated websites, or to solicit the buying or selling of products.

It’s unclear what, if any, editorial vetting processes are in place.

Info-Warring (Part II)

International Business Times files copyright complaint against conspiracy website InfoWars

In February, I blogged about a series of DMCA copyright complaints filed against U.S. conspiracy website InfoWars.

The complaints by pro-gun news website AmmoLand, Danish-run news website nsnbc international, plus a third accusation of content scraping by Cincinnati survivalist website On Point Preparedness, claimed that InfoWars republished their content without permission.

InfoWars founder Alex Jones (source)

Yesterday, BuzzFeed News broke the news that “InfoWars has republished more than 1,000 articles from RT without permission”:

Over the past three years, conspiracy site InfoWars has copied more than 1,000 articles produced by Russian state-sponsored broadcaster RT to its website — all without the permission of RT.

According to data from social sharing tracking website BuzzSumo, there were at least 1,014 RT articles republished on InfoWars since May of 2014. The articles appeared on InfoWars with a byline credit to RT, but a spokesperson for the Russian broadcaster told BuzzFeed News that InfoWars did not have permission to re-publish its content.

RT is not the only outlet InfoWars copied content from. A search on BuzzSumo shows there are articles copied from CNN, Sputnik, Breitbart, CNS News, the Blaze, CBC, BBC, Vice, The Guardian, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The New York Post, LA Times, BuzzFeed, and others. RT’s articles, however, seem to be the most numerous.

Adding to that list is the International Business Times (recently rebranded Newsweek Media Group).

According to the Lumen Database, a website that collects and analyses online takedown requests, the business news publication recently sent Google a copyright complaint claiming that “InfoWars often [uses] our content without approval and incorrectly attribute canonical owership [sic] to themselves”:

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According to BuzzFeed, InfoWars has not replied to multiple requests for comment.

Info-Warring

Leading U.S. conspiracy news website InfoWars accused of stealing content

According to multiple DMCA complaints that were sent to Google, InfoWars didn’t seek permission before republishing articles that originally featured on pro-gun news website AmmoLand and Danish-run news website nsnbc international.

AmmoLand editor Fredy Riehl claims that InfoWars duplicated, in full, his July 11, 2015 interview with Donald Trump, published shortly after Trump announced his candidacy for U.S. president.

Via the Lumen Database, a website that collects takedown requests of online content:

ammoland-august-14-2015-dmca-complaint-about-infowars

AmmoLand’s August 14, 2015 complaint to Google (source)

Via nsnbc’s complaint, InfoWars is accused of duplicating an article about Syrian journalist Maya Nasser, who was killed in 2012 while reporting from war-torn Damascus.

nsnbc-undated-dmca-complaint-about-infowars

nsnbc’s undated complaint to Google (source)

InfoWars is also accused of duplicating an article about bioterrorism originally published on Cincinnati survivalist news website On Point Preparedness.

Via “Why I Hate Infowars & Internet Plagiarism,” On Point Preparedness, May 6, 2015:

It was during October 2014 that I had my first popular article. I contacted Mac Slavo @ SHTFPlan.com and he was excited to repost my article. He was very courteous and asked if he could repost the article text “in full”, or whether I wanted him to only republish 1/3 of the article with a “read more” tag. Excited with the opportunity, I told him that he could republish my article in full text and all was good in the world.

After only a day of being up on his site, bigger fish like Infowars republished the story in full text, but did not ask for my permission. Additionally, they sited [sic] SHTFPlan.com as the source, rather than On Point Preparedness as the original author.

Last week it was reported that InfoWars founder Alex Jones, once described by New York magazine as “America’s leading conspiracy theorist,” has applied for White House press credentials.