PropOrNot

PropOrNot is a site providing lists of websites that purportedly spread and expose Russian propaganda, and is (according to The Daily Beast) a "sorry piece of trash".https://www.thedailybeast.com/washington-post-on-the-fake-news-hot-seat Some justified, some not. It was also accused of McCarthyism.WPost's anon source: this isn't McCarthyism! We just want FBI to investigate US news orgs for pro-Russia espionage by Glenn Greenwald (7:57 AM · Nov 25, 2016) Twitter (archived from January 6, 2021).
==Methodology==
PropOrNot’s methodology consists of 7 checks.
*Check 1: Citing obvious Russian propaganda sites such as RT, Fort-Russ etc.
*Check 2: History of reusing text from obvious Russian propaganda.
*Check 3: History of generally echoing the Russian propaganda "line".
*Check 4: History of echoing the Russian line in strange ways.
*Check 5: Lacks the hallmarks of good actual journalism (well-cited, balanced, bias-free).
*Check 6: Called out by other credible fact-checkers, journalists, and debunkers.
*Check 7: Steadfastly avoids coherently proposing constructive solutions to anything.
If it passes in all of the above, it is claimed to be safe to classify the site as Russian propaganda.
==The list==
On November 30 2016, PropOrNot published a list of 202 websites that they classify as Russian propaganda based on "a combination of manual and automated analysis, including analysis of content, timing, technical indicators, and other reporting", which the anonymous group suggests are "consistently, uncritically, and one-sidedly echoing, repeating, being used by, and redirecting their audiences to Russian official and semi-official state media".
They might not be propaganda, but most of them are definitely fake news sites.
*4thmedia.org
*4threvolutionarywar.wordpress.com
*abeldanger.net
*activistpost.com
*ahtribune.com
*allnewspipeline.com
*americanlookout.com
*americasfreedomfighters.com
*amren.com
*amtvmedia.com
*ancient-code.com
*anonews.co
*anonhq.com
*antiwar.com
*asia-pacificresearch.com
*assassinationscience.com
*baltimoregazette.com
*barenakedislam.com
*beforeitsnews.com
*bignuggetnews.com
*bioprepper.com
*blackagendareport.com
*blacklistednews.com
*christianfightback.com
*collective-evolution.com
*conservativedailypost.com
*consortiumnews.com
*corbettreport.com
*cosmicscientist.com
*countercurrents.org
*counterinformation.wordpress.com
*dailyoccupation.com
*dailystormer.com
*darkmoon.me
*darkpolitricks.com
*davidstockmanscontracorner.com
*dcclothesline.com
*dcleaks.com
*defenddemocracy.press
*dennismichaellynch.com
*disclose.tv
*disclosuremedia.net
*drudgereport.com
*educate-yourself.org
*educateinspirechange.org
*endingthefed.com
*endoftheamericandream.com
*endtime.com
*eutimes.net
*eutopia.buzz
*ewao.com
*eyeopening.info
*fellowshipoftheminds.com
*filmsforaction.org
*floridasunpost.com
*foreignpolicyjournal.com
*fourwinds10.net
*freedomoutpost.com
*gaia.com
*galacticconnection.com
*gangstergovernment.com
*gatesofvienna.net
*geopolmonitor.com
*globalresearch.ca
*godlikeproductions.com
*govtslaves.info
*greanvillepost.com
*guccifer2.wordpress.com
*hangthebankers.com
*healthnutnews.com
*henrymakow.com
*heresyblog.net
*humansarefree.com
*ihavethetruth.com
*in5d.com
*informationclearinghouse.info
*infowars.com
*intellihub.com
*intersectionproject.eu
*intrepidreport.com
*investmentresearchdynamics.com
*investmentwatchblog.com
*jackpineradicals.com
*jamesrgrangerjr.com
*jewsnews.co.il
*journal-neo.org
*katehon.com
*kingworldnews.com
*lewrockwell.com
*libertyblitzkrieg.com
*libertywritersnews.com
*makeamericagreattoday.com
*memoryholeblog.com
*mintpressnews.com
*moonofalabama.org
*nakedcapitalism.com
*naturalblaze.com
*naturalnews.com
*newcoldwar.org
*newstarget.com
*newswithviews.com
*nowtheendbegins.com
*nsnbc.me
*off-guardian.org
*oftwominds.com
*oilgeopolitics.net
*opednews.com
*orientalreview.org
*patriotrising.com
*paulcraigroberts.org
*platosguns.com
*pravda.ru
*pravdareport.com
*prepperwebsite.com
*presstv.com
*prisonplanet.com
*rbth.com
*readynutrition.com
*redflagnews.com
*regated.com
*rense.com
*righton.com
*rinf.com
*ronpaulinstitute.org
*rt.com
*rumormillnews.com
*ruptly.tv
*russia-insider.com
*sana.sy
*sentinelblog.com
*sgtreport.com
*shiftfrequency.com
*shtfplan.com
*silentmajoritypatriots.com
*silverdoctors.com
*sott.net
*southfront.org
*sputniknews.com
*stormcloudsgathering.com
*strategic-culture.org
*superstation95.com
*survivopedia.com
*the-newspapers.com
*theantimedia.org
*thecommonsenseshow.com
*thedailybell.com
*thedailysheeple.com
*theduran.com
*theearthchild.co.za
*theeconomiccollapseblog.com
*theeventchronicle.com
*thefederalistpapers.org
*thefreethoughtproject.com
*themindunleashed.org
*thenewsdoctors.com
*therebel.media
*therussophile.org
*thesaker.is
*thesleuthjournal.com
*thetruenews.info
*thetruthseeker.co.uk
*theunhivedmind.com
*thirdworldtraveler.com
*toprightnews.com
*trueactivist.com
*trunews.com
*truthout.org
*truthandaction.org
*truthdig.com
*truthfeed.com
*truthkings.com
*ufoholic.com
*undergroundworldnews.com
*unz.com
*usanewshome.com
*usapoliticsnow.com
*usasupreme.com
*usdcrisis.com
*usslibertyveterans.org
*vdare.com
*veteransnewsnow.com
*veteranstoday.com
*vigilantcitizen.com
*viralliberty.com
*voltairenet.org
*wakeupthesheep.com
*wakingtimes.com
*washingtonsblog.com
*wearechange.org
*weshapelife.org
*whatdoesitmean.com
*whatreallyhappened.com
*wikileaks.com
*wikileaks.org
*wikispooks.com
*worldnewspolitics.com
*worldpolitics.us
*www.fort-russ.com
*yournewswire.com
*zerohedge.com
==Questionable inclusions==
*CounterPunch was included in one of the earlier versions of the list. After a brief exchange of emails, they agreed to remove them from the list.https://www.counterpunch.org/2016/12/02/counterpunch-as-russian-propagandists-the-washington-posts-shallow-smear/ CounterPunch as Russian propagandists: the Washington Posts’ shallow smear] by Joshua Frank (Dec 2 2016) CounterPunch As Joshua Frank writes:
*Truthdig, which is a fairly normal news site that is rated with high-factual reporting from MBFC,Truthdig — MBFC is still present on the list. While they are very critical of the US government, they pass none of the 7 criteria to be classified as propaganda.
*Survivopedia, which is also fairly normal news site focused on, well, survival, is also purported Russian propaganda.
==Reception==
The site gained traction from an article in The Washington Post by Craig Timberg on November 24th, 2016, nearly a month after its inception.Russian propaganda effort helped spread ‘fake news’ during election, experts say The Washington Post, by Craig Timberg (Nov 24th, 2016) The site was further endorsed by Business Insider,REPORT: Hundreds of popular websites deliver Russian propaganda to 15 million Americans Alex Lockie (Nov 28 2016, 21:42 IST) The Wrap,Researchers Identify 200 Websites That ‘Reliably Echo Russian Propaganda’ to Millions of Americans by Greg Gilman (Nov 25 2016 1:48 PM) and the Associated Press.Russian propaganda effort likely behind flood of fake news that preceded election by AP via PBS (Nov 25 2016 2:45 PM EDT)
The Washington Post report was one of the most widely circulated political news articles on social media over the previous 48 hours, with dozens, perhaps hundreds, of U.S. journalists and pundits with large platforms hailing it as an earth-shattering exposé. It was the most-read piece on the entire Post website on the Friday after it was published.Why isn't this the biggest story in the world right now? Twitter
===Criticism===
While the threat of Russian manipulation of information is certainly very real,How Vladimir Putin is revolutionizing information warfare by Peter Pomerantsev (September 9 2014) The Atlantic.A guide for Russian propaganda. Part 1: Propaganda prepares Russia for war by EuroMaidanPR (5 May 2016)Have you been watching Russian government propaganda? by Patrick Hilsman (May 6, 2015) Seattle GlobalistWelcome to Cold War 2.0, the risk of the Kremlin rolling the dice against NATO is real by John R. Schindler (02/15/2016) The ObserverThe U.S. Should Do More to Counter Putin’s Propaganda by James J. Coyle (6/23/2015) NewsweekInside the Kremlin’s hall of mirrors by Peter Pomerantsev (9 April 2015) The Guardian the fact that Russian trolls are being paid to spread misinformation,The Agency by Adrian Chen (June 2 2015) New York TimesThe Trolls Who Came In From The Cold by Viktor Rezunkov (March 16, 2015) Radio Free Europe/Radio LibertySalutin' Putin: inside a Russian troll house by Shaun Walker (2 April 2015) St Petersburg, The GuardianMy life as a pro-Putin propagandist in Russia’s secret 'troll factory'by Tom Parfitt (24 Jun 2015) St Petersburg, The TelegraphWoman who sued pro-Putin Russian 'troll factory' gets one rouble in damages by Agence France-Presse (18 August 2015) St PetersburgUnmasking the Men Behind Zero Hedge, Wall Street's Renegade Blog by Tracy Alloway and Luke Kawa (April 29 2016) BloombergThe Empire Trolls Back: How the U.S. Can Respond to Russian Propaganda by Sean Keeley (26 April 2016) Center on Global Interests hackers are being hired to push propaganda,Whodunnit? Russia and Coercion Through Cyberspace by Robert Morgus (19 Oct 2016)Even a Fake Clinton Foundation Hack Can Do Serious Damage by Lily Hay Newman (10 Jul 2016) WiredGuccifer 2.0 posts DCCC docs, says they’re from Clinton Foundation by Sean Gallagher (10 May 2016) Ars Technica and many of the sites present on the list have been known to spread it, it seems that the PropOrNot team isn’t very good at actually identifying them. As BuzzFeed's Sheera Frenkel noted, "a lot of reporters passed on this story." Its flaws are self-evident.craigtimberg fwiw, a lot of reporters passed on this story. by @sheeraf (11:20 AM - 25 Nov 2016) Twitter (archived from September 21, 2020).
*After a mere two days of The Washington Post article, Ben Norton and Glenn Greenwald of The Intercept called them out for "disgracefully"” promoting the site written by "very shady" anonymous authors for which "the credentials of this supposed group of experts are impossible to verify",Washington Post Disgracefully Promotes A McCarthyite Blacklist From A New, Hidden, And Very Shady Group by Ben Norton & Glenn Greenwald (26 Nov 2016) The Intercept. leading The Washington Post to put a disclaimer on their original article about it which read:
*Consortium News described it as a movement of “McCarthyistic smears”.Washington Post's 'Fake News' Guilt by Robert Parry (Nov 27 2016) Consortium News.
*After a few days, many other news sites that were falsely classified as Russian propaganda picked up on the story to rant about it. One of them was CounterPunch. Renee Parsons of CounterPunch went as far as linking PropOrNot to Obama's presidency.Obama and PropOrNot by Renee Parsons (Dec 2 2016) CounterPunch. CounterPunch also stated the link between NATO and being anti-Trump to PropOrNot, citing a page from a conspiratorial site which cries about internet censorship.https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/11/23/russiagate-mccarthyism-led-to-internet-censorship-of-the-anti-war-and-social-justice-movement/ On the same day, Joshua Frank reported that after a brief exchange of emails, PropOrNot agreed to remove CounterPunch from its list. but that did not exactly stop them from making a million more articles about them.search for PropOrNot CounterPunch
====Media Bias/Fact Check====
MBFC has rated PropOrNot as a 'Conspiracy/Pseudoscience' source with strong conspiracy level and mixed factual reporting.PropOrNot—MBFC The following note is displayed on their page:
==Current state==
The website has gone majorly underground, the last post on their website was on March 24, 2017. Their Twitter account is still active, but has stopped posting childish tweets and now just reposts tweets from other famous people that support its movement.
==Hamilton 2.0 Dashboard== 
Hamilton 2.0 Dashboard, a successor to Hamilton 68,Hamilton 2.0 Dashboard Alliance for Securing Democracy. is something like a resurrection of the resourcefulness of the PropOrNot. The Alliance for Securing Democracy, an initiative housed at The German Marshall Fund of the United States have been publishing since 2017, and have undoubtedly observed PropOrNot’s spectacular failure, while developing the “Hamilton 68 Dashboard".
According to The German Marshall Fund, the “dashboard” is designed to “shed light on Russian propaganda efforts on Twitter in near-real time.” The “Hamilton 68” website offers a dozen automatically-updated columns tracking “trending hashtags,” “trending topics,” “top domains,” “top URLs,” and so on.
“Our analysis is based on 600 Twitter accounts linked to Russian influence activities online,” Laura Rosenberger (a senior fellow at the alliance) and J.M. Berger (a non-resident fellow) wrote in a blog post on August 2.
The dashboard was endorsed by many other famous people on Twitter (but to a relatively less extent than PropOrNot).To my friends in the press, look here for real-time updates on Russian propaganda efforts: http://bit.ly/2tX2iDT[https://twitter.com/juliaioffe/status/892778139939688448 A very cool tool for identifying in real time what stories the Russian govt is pushing. Thanks, 
@selectedwisdom @http://dashboard.securingdemocracy.org] Julia Ioffe (Aug 2, 2017) Twitter#MAGA is currently the most common hashtag promoted by Russian Twitter trolls according to the Hamilton68 dashboard. http://dashboard.securingdemocracy.org Evan McMullin (Aug 3, 2017) Twitter
===Differences===
After the spectacular failure of the PropOrNot list, it seems self-evident that one might stay away from certain aspects of their methodology that led to their demise. Some of the more major ones include:
*Hamilton 68's propaganda list is a secret. Unlike PropOrNot, Hamilton 68 does not disclose the identities of the 600 Twitter accounts. The German Marshall Fund says it refuses to reveal the specific accounts in its dataset because it “prefers to focus on the behavior of the overall network rather than get dragged into hundreds of individual debates over which troll fits which role.”
*The lack of methodological clarity (for the sake of avoiding “debates”) has already led to some misleading coverage in the media, with outlets like Business Insider reporting that “Hamilton 68 is now working to expose those trolls — as well as automated bots and human accounts — whose main use for Twitter appears to be an amplification of pro-Russia themes,” despite the fact that the website doesn’t actually reveal the names of any Twitter accounts. J.M. Berger stated that his team could have expanded the dashboard to “6,000 almost as easily, but the analysis would be less close to real-time.” Berger also emphasized that the 600 selected accounts were identified with a "98-percent confidence rate."
==References==
Category:Fake news