The rise of fake news websites, often posing as legitimate local news sources, has now surpassed the number of genuine local news outlets in the United States, media analysts report.
According to disinformation watchdog NewsGuard, there has been a significant increase in fake news websites, known for their low-quality content and disinformation. The sites are generally operated by partisan entities or clickbait content producers seeking maximum profit.
Also, the advancement of technology and generative AI has further accelerated their production, NewsGuard noted.
Data from the Medill Local News Initiative at Northwestern University’s Journalism School indicates that the number of legitimate local news sites in the U.S. has dropped to a historic low of 1,213. Tim Franklin, director of the Medill Local News Initiative, attributes this decline to diminishing profits and shrinking audiences, leading to the creation of vast “news deserts” areas with little to no access to local news.
“We have an acceleration and loss of local news organizations across the country,” Franklin said. “More than half of U.S. counties now are news deserts or only have limited access to local news.”
He says these conditions have created an opportunity for malicious actors to exploit, Franklin explained. “I think these kind of cynical actors who run these pink slime operations understand that we have seen the collapse of the local news business model across the country,” he said. “They are going to try to fill the void of the loss of legitimate local news. I think we are going to be flooded with a tsunami of misinformation and disinformation.”
Notably, Russia has been identified as a significant contributor to the surge in fake news sites. Sadeghi noted that more than 150 Russian-backed sites are involved in spreading disinformation. “These sites heavily rely on AI to generate their content,” Sadeghi said. “All the way down to their text, their images, and logos. They are spread widely on social media, and people have fallen for them, thinking they are trusted normal local publications.”
The Media Forensics Hub wrote in a December 2023 report. The report warned that AI and other digital technologies have also become big enablers of fakenews and bad actors to create convincing fake publications that lend credibility to absurd narratives.