National Report is a website which posts fictional articles related to world events.[2][3] It is described by Snopes.com as a fake news site,[4] by FactCheck.org as a satirical site[5] and by Caitlin Dewey of the Washington Post as part of a fake-news industry, making profits from "duping gullible Internet users with deceptively newsy headlines."[6] It is self-described as a "news and political satire web publication" containing "presumably fake news."[7]
Stories from the National Report have been taken seriously by third parties such as Fox News Channel, and the site drew criticism in October 2014 for running a series of fake stories about Ebola outbreaks in the United States,[8] including the false report that the town of Purdon, Texas, has been quarantined after an outbreak.[9][10] The story led to a traffic spike of two million unique visitors, and although the story was debunked by other websites, the original National Report story received six times as many "shares" on social media sites as the debunking stories did.[8]
The National Report carries a disclaimer identifying its content as satire and fake news,[7] but there was no prominent link to this page until late December 2014.
