Pink Slime: What’s behind the fake news sites?

disinformation
“Pink Slime” – the perfidious scam of the fake news sites

So-called “Pink Slime” websites pose as reputable news portals, but deliberately spread false information. Their lies are usually exposed quickly – why are they still so successful?

Anyone who gets their news primarily via the Internet and social media has probably already stumbled upon them: websites that claim to be reputable media but spread fake news about the war in Ukraine, Corona or minorities. This form of disinformation is called “Pink Slime”. Who is behind it and what do the operators of these fake news portals want to do?

The term “Pink Slime” comes from a television show that is more than 13 years old. The TV chef Jamie Oliver revealed in a post that McDonald’s and other fast food chains had mixed cheap animal waste substitutes into real minced meat. Oliver gave this mass a name: Pink Slime. McDonald’s banned the slime from its products after the show, but suspicions that the company was still using it persisted.

The fake websites also work according to a similar principle. Instead of minced meat, something extremely unsavory is mixed into the digital media landscape. Pink slime news portals look like legitimate news sites, but act as an extension of lobby groups and populists.

The portals have legitimate-sounding names like “The Boston Times” or “Chicago City Wire” that intentionally resemble the names of actual newspapers. According to a report in the Financial Times, there were a total of 1,197 operating pink slime websites in the United States as of last week. The number has tripled compared to 2019, and has since decreased dramatically again. A particularly large number of news sites will surface in the US election years of 2020 and 2024.

The content of the slimy news portals is made up of blatant lies and AI-generated content. For example, according to a recently published article in the Boston Times, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky smuggled cocaine on a trip to Argentina. There is no evidence of this.

In its self-description, the Boston Times calls itself a “beacon of journalistic integrity” in the “heart of Massachusetts” that has been burning since 1972. However, the website has only been around since this year.

According to research by the Financial Times, major conservative donors and consultants to the Republican Party in the USA such as Brian Timpone, Tim Dunn and Bradley Cameron are behind many of the US portals. They all have connections to the largest “Pink Slime” media group “Metric Media”, which operates over 1000 local news sites. On these pages, Donald Trump’s claims of a “rigged election” are mixed with articles on Christian values ​​and the benefits of the fossil fuel industry. According to a Columbia University report, Metric Media received at least $1.6 million from conservative sources ahead of the US midterms.

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There have always been people and organizations spreading disinformation during election campaigns. The Internet has also been an unprecedented breeding ground for this over the past twenty years with social media accounts and Telegram groups. However, this AI-generated attack on journalism is taking on a new dimension.

Experts expect increase in “pink slime” websites

Artificial intelligence tools can be used to produce more and more misleading content at a reasonable price. Alex Mahadevan, director of the organization MediaWise, which supports people in identifying disinformation, assumes in an interview with the “Financial Times” that the number of “Pink Slime” websites will increase again.

Europe and Germany could also become central markets for “Pink Slime”. Russian fake news agencies have been up to mischief here for a long time. In the fall of 2023, they spread the news that Ukrainian refugees had caused a plague of bed bugs in Paris. A year earlier, dozens of fakes appeared from news portals such as “Bild.de” and “Spiegel Online”, which also spread Russian propaganda.

Many people probably only noticed the difference when they looked at the URL or the page layout. However, it is questionable whether it is even crucial that people can expose the websites as false information. The right-wing culture wars that have spilled over into Europe from the USA in recent years and the corona pandemic have created a space of discourse in which many people seem to care more about their own political opinions than facts and journalistic rigor. The pink attack on journalism could therefore also find fertile ground in this country.

Sources: “The time“, “Financial Times“, Tow Center Columbia University