Thread by @extapdancer

What do I do for fun?
Go down internet rabbit holes, sometimes.
Like the "fake people on the internet" rabbit hole (courtesy reverse image search):

So a big hello to "Richard Elliot", "Arthur Vanselow" or "Dave Tailford"

2/ If anyone is interested, this is what this tells us. There are websites built (easily) without any oversight, in order to create fake stories about people. The websites will have little or no information about who they are or who creates the content. …

3/ This includes some of the "people" on the site who are supposed "reporters" (in this case, "show biz" and "gossip") who, it turns out, are fake. So would you believe an article about a (let's not say celebrity, let say) PEP ("public eye person") when the credit

4/ for the author is given on the site to a fake person or entity?

So how did this start, you may ask?
I read an "article" that included information about a PEP and something seemed off about the info - the PEP's "entrepreneurial" business. I looked that business up, and

5/ in an age when any savvy "entrepreneur" would make sure to have their biz online, and often it's impossible NOT to, there was NOTHING. This business just doesn't exist (it's not like a business that works in the dark; it's the kind of business that

6/ survives on flow of customers, yelp reviews, neighborhood word of mouth, customer satisfaction, face-to-face buying and selling). So I started digging and found profile information about the "author". It included a picture, so I did a reverse image search and found the image

7/ used in two other profiles of two other sites of the same ilk (celebrity "news"), in which the names were different.

And if you wonder if this is at all related to our so-called president, it is, indirectly (at least). And I'll say one more thing about this …

8/ You've heard of foreign meddling in our election? FaceBook? Twitter? Realize that there are uncountable websites that pop up in order to spread BS. Soviet intelligence was

9/ masterful at this kind of thing (misinformation propaganda), & there's no reason to believe they aren't still good at it. If you were the head of Russian intel, wouldn't you be helping to drive a wedge into the West (but let's stick to the US) by

10/ taking advantage of a) worship of celebrity/fame/money and b) the open internet (freedom of speech)? Yes, you would.
At the very LEAST, what I found is simply people in the US building reputations for themselves out of fake info. At worst, this is an example of how

11/ foreign adversaries can spread disinformation about people/entities they support, people/entities they don't, including PEP, politicians, people in power or those associated with them.

I respectfully ask @MalcolmNance to give this a read.