- Cummins back, Marsh and Head out of Pakistan ODI series
- Shanghai stocks swing after stimulus briefing as most of Asia rises
- New Zealand's Latham promises 'no fear' as he takes charge for India Tests
- Kyrgios vows to 'shut up' doubters with December comeback
- Public hearings start into death of Brit by Russian nerve agent
- Ex-Stasi officer faces verdict over 1974 Berlin border killing
- Role of government, poverty research tipped for economics Nobel
- 'Stolen satire' feeds US election misinformation
- Rookie McCarty captures first PGA Tour title in Black Desert Championship
- Australia all-rounder Green ruled out of India Test series
- Seeing double in Nigeria's 'twins capital of the world'
- UK FM to attend EU foreign affairs talks for first time in 2 years
- Carter, Billups among 13 new Basketball Hall of Fame inductees
- Ravens rip Commanders as Lions lose NFL sacks leader in win
- Hezbollah drone strike kills four, wounds dozens at Israeli base
- China says launches military drills around Taiwan
- Stewart leads Liberty past Lynx to level WNBA Finals
- England return to winning ways in Nations League, Austria thrash Norway
- UN chief says attacks on UNIFIL 'may constitute a war crime'
- Ravens outlast Commanders while Bucs batter Saints in NFL
- Dozens hurt in Israel as Hezbollah claims drone strike
- England deserve 'world class' coach: Carsley
- Burkina Faso win to become first qualifiers for 2025 AFCON
- AC Milan's Pulisic among five out for USA match in Mexico
- France's Amandine Henry retires from international football
- Centre-left set to win pro-Ukraine Lithuania's vote
- India's World Cup hopes in Pakistan hands after Australia defeat
- Zelensky says NKorea sending troops to Russian army
- England beat Finland to get back on track
- King and Lewis propel West Indies to T20 triumph over Sri Lanka
- Pre-Halloween 'Terrifier' lands atop North America box office
- 'I still plan to compete and play next season,' says Djokovic
- Harris, Trump seek advantage in knife-edge election battle
- Chepngetich shatters women's marathon world record in Chicago
- Kamindu and Asalanka power Sri Lanka to 179 against West Indies
- Chepngetich shatters women's marathon world record as Korir wins in Chicago
- Spain send injured Yamal home 'to prioritise player's health'
- In milestone, SpaceX 'catches' megarocket booster after test flight
- Iraq walks fine line with pro-Iran factions to avoid war
- Race four abandoned after New Zealand breeze into 3-0 lead in America's Cup
- West Indies win toss, put Sri Lanka in to bat in first T20
- Sudan rescuers say air strike killed 23 in Khartoum market
- Netanyahu tells UN to move Lebanon peacekeepers out of 'harm's way'
- Bangladeshi Hindus defy attack worries to celebrate festival
- Kiwis three up in America's Cup as Ineos pay for time penalty
- In a first, SpaceX 'catches' megarocket booster after test flight
- Dominant England crush Scotland at Women's T20 World Cup
- Dropped: The rise and fall of Pakistan batting maestro Babar Azam
- Israel fights Hezbollah on the ground, pounds Lebanon from the air
- Sabalenka outlasts local hero Zheng to win third Wuhan Open title
'Stolen satire' feeds US election misinformation
Did a Donald Trump supporter burn down his house while igniting an LGBTQ flag? Did a conservative think tank recommend "period passports" to monitor pregnancies? Was Kamala Harris's running mate dissed by his own state's professional football team?
Do not be fooled. This is satire.
But it is no laughing matter.
These claims were widely mistaken as real across social media, underscoring how content from satirical websites is being repurposed to fuel political misinformation and sow confusion ahead of the November 5 presidential election.
The nonprofit News Literacy Project (NLP) calls such misinformation "stolen satire" -- plucking satirical content from its original context and presenting it as accurate information without a clear disclaimer.
"People who aren't in on the joke take it at face value," Hannah Covington, a senior director at NLP, told AFP.
Ahead of the National Football League regular season, social media users falsely claimed the Minnesota Vikings had denounced Tim Walz, the state's governor and Democratic vice presidential candidate, questioning his leadership.
But the Vikings had issued no such statement.
AFP's fact-checkers found that the falsehood stemmed from the Facebook page of America's Last Line of Defense, a network of parody websites run by Christopher Blair.
The group clarifies that "nothing on this page is real."
Blair said his target audience shares such claims because they "fit with their confirmation-biased narrative of the world."
"They don't necessarily share them because they believe them," Blair told AFP.
"Whether or not a thing is true no longer matters to about 35 million Americans. If it's what they want to hear, they'll pass it along."
- 'Weaponized misinformation' -
Such humorous fiction –- peddled by both sides of the political aisle -- often makes the internet erupt with laughter, but researchers are not laughing about its potential to fool the public.
"Sharing weaponized misinformation in the form of lazy jokes has quickly come to define the developing presidential campaign between" Trump and Vice President Harris, tech writer Casey Newton wrote in an online commentary.
"Across social networks, Democrats and Republicans are flooding the feed with obviously untrue statements about one another and calling it a joke."
Some viral posts falsely claimed that an Iowa-based fan of "Make America Great Again" -- the political movement and slogan popularized by Trump -- had mistakenly burned his house down while attempting to incinerate an LGBTQ flag.
The man was ridiculed as "stupid" and "homophobic."
But AFP found that the claim originated in satire.
Other posts falsely claimed that Project 2025, a set of policy proposals by the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank, recommends mandating that women carry "period passports" to monitor their menstrual cycle and pregnancies.
The Heritage Foundation, widely considered aligned with Trump's agenda, told AFP that the claim was "absolutely false."
The Halfway Post, founded by the political satirist Dash MacIntyre, first published both claims.
- 'Outrage into clicks' -
MacIntyre, who said Trump's election in 2017 inspired him to start his satire company, insisted that he was not trying to "proliferate fake news" but that politicians deserve lampooning in a climate of "political insanity."
"It's not really my fault that if I fictionalize alleged incidents involving Trump to critique and satirize his awful personality... so many viewers take it seriously," he told AFP.
"There are always gullible and low-information people, but I don't think that means satirical comedy doesn't belong" on social media, he added.
But when passively scrolling the internet, such posts without labels or context may look real, the NLP's Covington said, adding that some clout-chasing actors were exploiting the trend to "convert outrage into clicks."
Elon Musk, owner of the platform X who has endorsed Trump, recently courted criticism for sharing a deepfake video in which a voiceover mimicking Harris declared that she does not "know the first thing about running the country."
The video was originally posted by an X account that labeled it as a "parody," but Musk's repost made no such disclosure.
"Clear and consistent practices like watermarking something as satire is so important to help preserve its original context," Covington said.
"Most platforms do not have any real policies they consistently enforce around this kind of content, so it's up to us as consumers to verify before sharing."
M.Thompson--AMWN