List of satirical fake news websites

The following is a list of satirical websites that have been created by companies or individuals and contain content that has been described by fact-checkers, journalists or researchers as fake news.

List

Even though many satirical sources are labeled as such with disclaimers, there is a long history of satirical content being falsely perceived as true. According to Snopes, this misunderstanding can be due to a variety of reasons:

• A lack of understanding of literary techniques typically used for satire, such as sarcasm, irony and exaggeration
• Satirical content being shown out of context in e-mails, memes and social media posts
• Satirical content not being seen in full
• Different satirical techniques appealing to different audiences
• Different readers having different frames of reference
• Some readers not expecting to see satirical content.

The following table lists websites considered by fact-checkers to be satire:

The Last Line of Defense

Newslo

Deceptive satire

Some websites self-labeled as satire have been accused by journalists from news outlets such as Politico and The New Republic of duplicity by means of clickbait headlines, humorless appeals to partisans, hidden disclaimers, and oversaturation of ads.

References