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Local News Hijacking: A Review of International Instances

Christine Sowa Lepird, Kathleen M. Carley

TL;DR

The paper addresses the rise of inauthentic local news websites used in international information operations to influence regional audiences. It conducts a cross-case review of seven campaigns from 2007 to 2024, analyzing operation methods such as resurrected zombie papers, WordPress templates, and social-media amplification to reveal cross-border patterns. It identifies commonalities and offers policy recommendations, including domain-name enforcement, credibility labeling on platforms, stronger IP enforcement for WordPress sites, and an accredited local-news registry with browser indicators. The work highlights the threat to local journalism from state and non-state actors and proposes actionable steps to preserve local news integrity and curb misinformation dissemination.

Abstract

In the rise of the digital era, it's easier than ever to create nefarious websites to spread misinformation. A more recent phenomenon in the United States has been the creation of inauthentic local news websites to further an information operation campaign. This paper is a review of the 7 instances in which local news websites were created to influence residents of a region between 2007 and 2024. By breaking down the ways in which these sites operated, we discovered commonalities in the approach - resurrecting "zombie" papers that were previously established authentic local news organizations, sharing these sites on social media, and using website templates from WordPress. By analyzing these commonalities, we propose ways to mitigate the occurrence of these campaigns in the future.

Local News Hijacking: A Review of International Instances

TL;DR

The paper addresses the rise of inauthentic local news websites used in international information operations to influence regional audiences. It conducts a cross-case review of seven campaigns from 2007 to 2024, analyzing operation methods such as resurrected zombie papers, WordPress templates, and social-media amplification to reveal cross-border patterns. It identifies commonalities and offers policy recommendations, including domain-name enforcement, credibility labeling on platforms, stronger IP enforcement for WordPress sites, and an accredited local-news registry with browser indicators. The work highlights the threat to local journalism from state and non-state actors and proposes actionable steps to preserve local news integrity and curb misinformation dissemination.

Abstract

In the rise of the digital era, it's easier than ever to create nefarious websites to spread misinformation. A more recent phenomenon in the United States has been the creation of inauthentic local news websites to further an information operation campaign. This paper is a review of the 7 instances in which local news websites were created to influence residents of a region between 2007 and 2024. By breaking down the ways in which these sites operated, we discovered commonalities in the approach - resurrecting "zombie" papers that were previously established authentic local news organizations, sharing these sites on social media, and using website templates from WordPress. By analyzing these commonalities, we propose ways to mitigate the occurrence of these campaigns in the future.
Paper Structure (15 sections, 11 figures, 1 table)

This paper contains 15 sections, 11 figures, 1 table.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Methodology
  3. International Instances of Pink Slime
  4. 2007: Germany's 'Zombie' Papers
  5. 2010: A Pro-India Campaign in the European Union
  6. 2018: Romania Driving Canadian Misinformation
  7. 2019: The Great Chinese Paperwall Against the World
  8. 2023: Russia Infiltrates Israel
  9. 2024: Lebanon Also Infiltrates Israel
  10. 2024: Russia Comes for America
  11. Commonalities
  12. Recommendations
  13. Conclusion
  14. Acknowledgments.
  15. Disclosure of Interests.

Figures (11)

  • Figure 1: A map representing the sources of inauthentic local news and the regions where they created the "local" news. The geographic regions the arrows point towards are the ones that were infiltrated by the source nodes. Image generated using the ORA network visualization software carley_ora_2018.
  • Figure 2: A network visualizing all of the individual countries creating and being attacked by local news hijacking campaigns. Red nodes were attacked at least 3 times, yellow nodes were attacked 2 times, and the green nodes were only attacked 1 time. Image generated using the ORA network visualization software carley_ora_2018.
  • Figure 3: A 2012 translated screenshot of one of the German "zombie" newspapers before it was taken over by non-locals.
  • Figure 4: A 2016 translated screenshot of one of the German "zombie" newspapers after it was taken over by non-locals.
  • Figure 5: A 2018 screenshot from EP Today, a fake local news website established by India to influence the European Union. One headline states "EU and India: Natural Partners."
  • ...and 6 more figures