With Its Top Investor in Jail, a Pro-Trump Social Media Site Suffers Mass Layoffs
Mother Jones illustration; Don Emmert/AFP/Getty; Rafael Henrique/SOPA/ZUMA Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.A pro-Trump social media site that was launched with great fanfare less than three years ago has now laid off much of its staff and is close to shutting down, current and…
The Internet’s Favorite Supplement Titan Appears to Be Taking Cues From a Psychic
Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.If anti-vaccine influencers had a king, it would be Dr. Joseph Mercola, the osteopathic physician whose supplement empire has netted him a tidy fortune of $100 million. Mercola has been a power broker in alternative medicine circles for years—as…
Anti-Vax Influencer Stew Peters Has a New Fixation: “The Jews”
/Stew Peters Network Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.In October, I wrote about how bounty-hunter-turned-far-right-livestreamer Stew Peters was using the conflict in Gaza as an excuse to indulge in flagrantly antisemitic rhetoric. Back then, Peters mostly used coded language, ranting about “Zionists” and the…
Climate Denialism on YouTube Has Evolved Into Something Else
Didem Mente/Anadolu/Getty/Grist This story was originally published by Grist and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Imagine if you could walk from your house to anywhere you needed to go in less than 15 minutes: the pharmacy, the bakery, the gym, and then back to the bakery. In a certain, conspiracy-addled corner of the internet, this…
Meet the Operatives Who Profited From January 6
Mother Jones illustration; Jose Luis Magana/AP; Brian Cahn/ZUMA; Andrea Renault/ZUMA Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.At 4:17 p.m. on January 6, 2021, while rioters battled police inside the Capitol, Kimberly Guilfoyle emailed her banker. Guilfoyle—who was a top official on Donald Trump’s presidential campaign—wanted…
Is Dumping Twitter Your New Year’s Resolution?
Mother Jones; Getty Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.Ever since Elon Musk took over Twitter, people have occasionally asked themselves a question: “Is it okay for me to keep using this thing?” For many users, Musk has made Twitter—or as it is now technically…