When you think fake news, you probably picture a puffed up Donald Trump lying about something that he obviously did.

Here’s the thing – actual fake news is getting so out of control that even Facebook is getting task teams together to monitor the situation.

In light of this, you would assume that actual news sources would be able to tell the real from the fake, but this doesn’t seem to be the case.

Here’s RawStory:

Conservatives in the United States helped spread a fake video against “manspreading” that resulted in a misogynistic backlash against women.

‘Manspreading’ is something that men do in public places. It involves spreading one’s legs so as to take up as much room as possible. It’s very irritating.

The video was created by the Kremlin in Russia and features paid actors. Take a look:

The website EU vs Disinfo reported on Monday that the video was a fake, following an interview in the Russian language online magazine Bumaga, with one of the men in the video.

Conservatives in the United States spread the video, including The Blaze (founded by conservative radio personality Glenn Beck), The Daily Wire (founded by conservative commentator Ben Shapiro) and the website Chicks on Right.

Hold on – it wasn’t just conservatives. Buzzfeed News was also taken in, as was VICE, and a number of other left-leaning outlets.

Turns out that the video was created by the Kremlin’s English-language propaganda website specifically for international audiences.

“The key to a possible answer is found in the reactions the video has been able to spur,” EU vs Disinfoexplained. “In the comments section on Facebook, users express outrage against the alleged feminist activist, often in strongly misogynic language, with this comment as the most popular, gathering by now more than 14,000 likes.”

“In other words, the video stages extreme feminist activism and manages to provoke extreme anti-feminist reactions,” EU vs Disinfo noted.

The trolls were more than willing to accept the video as real. After all, the best propaganda works by confirming what people already believe to be true.

If you shared or liked the video, oops.

[source:rawstory]