There is no such thing as the Denver Guardian, despite that Facebook post you saw

The Denver Post – by Eric Lubbers

The “Denver Guardian” is not a real news source and definitely isn’t Denver’s oldest news source.

On Nov. 5, a story began circulating on Facebook (at points gaining 100 shares per minute) with the headline “FBI AGENT SUSPECTED IN HILLARY EMAIL LEAKS FOUND DEAD IN APPARENT MURDER-SUICIDE,” and hosted at denverguardian.com.  

The only problem is that there is no such thing as “The Denver Guardian” and the news story it “reported” never happened.

Let’s run down the list of red flags:

This false story is one of thousands of fake news stories being circulated around Facebook by fly-by-night “hyperpartisan” sites this election cycle, according an investigation by Buzzfeed News.

A second investigation showed that many of the sites spreading the fake news have been created by teens in Macedonia looking to profit off of supporters (and detractors) of Donald Trump.

The teens tried to make pages for Bernie Sanders and other left-leaning politicians, but “people in America prefer to read news about Trump,” according to one Macedonian 16-year-old.

On Nov. 6, Vox posted a story tackling the expected long-term damage this flood of fake news on Facebook could have on democracy and what they say is the social media giant’s responsibility to tackle, sooner than later.

http://www.denverpost.com/2016/11/05/there-is-no-such-thing-as-the-denver-guardian/

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