StopFake

Spooky "fact checking" website to counter "Russian Propaganda". Backed by an alliance of groups including the Integrity Initiative. Some staff crossover with the Institute for Statecraft.

Ben Nimmo's contributions to the StopFake website

 https://www.stopfake.org    
Started: 2 March 2014
Founders: Yevhen Fedchenko, Mohyla School of Journalism

Constitutes: “Fact checker”

Main focus: Ukraine, Russian propaganda
Members: Sarah Hurst,  EU vs Disinfo,  Mauro Voerzio,  Bogdan Borodiichuk,  Irena Chalupa,  Anna Chornous,  Olena Churanova,  Alain Guillemoles,  Vadim Heshel,  Ruslan Deynychenko,  Sonia Dymytrova-Martyniuk,  Mariia Zhdanova,  Kira Zalytok,  Nataliia Kucheriava,  Alina Mosendz,  Oleksiy Nabozhnyak,  Yurii Panin,  Oksana Pinsker,  Oksana Poluliakh,  Mykhailo Purish,  Viktoriia Romaniuk,  Margo Gontar,  Yevhen Fedchenko,  Olga Yurkova,  Oleksiy Ladyka,  Alla Radnyuk,  Patrik Felčer,  Nadiya Balovsyak,  Pawel Bobolowicz,  Wojtek Pokora,  Artem Laptiev,  Wojciech Mucha,  Olena Semeniuk,  Sofia Kochmar-Tymoshenko,  Galyna Schimansky-Geier,  Nina Jankowicz

StopFake is a website focused on the Ukraine. It was supported by the UK Deep state's Integrity Initiative (II) and member Alina Mosendz took part in the II campaign to prevent Pedro Baños from being appointed Director of the Spanish Department of Homeland Security.

Official narrative

"Fact-checking website Stopfake.org was launched on March 2, 2014 by alums and students of Mohyla School of Journalism and Digital Future of Journalism professional program for journalists and editors. At a later stage the initial team was joined by many journalists, marketing specialists, programmers, translators and all those who care about the fate of our country and its people. The main purpose of this community is to check facts, verify information and refute distorted information and propaganda about events in Crimea covered in the media media. The number of volunteers is constantly growing to help to verify information, to write, to edit and translate stories. StopFake.org community does not represent or support any political party or other organization. " In 2017, Andrew E. Kramer reported on it in the New York Times. A Wikipedia page was created on 12 February 2019.

Launch

The domain name was registered on 2 March 2014 and the site was posted on 5 March. On 6 March 2014, Brian Ries wrote an article entitled StopFake.org Is Like a 'Snopes' for Ukraine. By 7 March it had at least 10 posts.

Reporting

StopFake has published articles by IfS members Liz Wahl, Ben Nimmo, and Dan Kaszeta as well as others in a similar milieu, such as Robert van der Noordaa and Lisa J Walters.

"Laws ostensibly aimed at combating terrorism and religious hatred and protecting children have created an environment in which it’s increasingly hard to publish fiction, broadcast independent television or put on theatrical and musical productions that don’t toe an ever-shifting party line."

Integrity Initiative/Institute for Statecraft

Full articles: Integrity Initiative, Institute for Statecraft

StopFake is mentioned many times in the Integrity Initiative Leak documents. A June 2018 leaked document noted that “[StopFake] has been criticised for a monomaniacal fixation on Russian hybrid warfare, but its work has been widely praised.” The Integrity Initiative planned to spend £11,999.70 to "Provide guest articles from Ifs and our clusters for StopFake's printed material published and distributed along the contact line in Eastern Ukraine." The same budget proposal planned to spend £119'997.00 on"A modular training programme (based on IREX/StopFake material)".

 

Related Quotations

Page	Quote	Author	Date
Corporate media/Deep state control	“Expand the network of IfS associates and partner organisations to include e.g. DarthPutin, GlasnostGone, StopFake, European Values, Saper Vedere, and coordinate their efforts to mirror and amplify what IfS is already doing where possible.”	Victor Madeira	16 March 2018
Institute for Statecraft/Control	“Comment [VM2]: Most of these aren’t even Cluster countries – can II justify spending ££ on strengthening media there? Don’t get me wrong: any help we can provide these and other colleagues is a win in my books but I’m trying to anticipate how the Sponsor may see the relevance of speakers from some of these countries.”	Victor Madeira	16 March 2018
Institute for Statecraft/Purposes	“The Italian reactions to Skripal case highlight and confirm a pattern already present in a previous report: pro-Russian sentiments in Italy are mainly inflated not by trolls or fake news but thanks to a large network encompassing politicians, journalists, media, websites etc. already aligned with Russian narrative... To counter this Italian trend it's important to properly address the key political leaders, their new populist parties, and key editorialists, by an effective, discrete and articulated information campaign and narrative and not to be exclusively focused on trolls and fake news.”	Integrity Initiative	16 March 2018

 

Known members

3 of the 36 of the members already have pages here:

Member	Description
Yevhen Fedchenko	The head of stopfake. Traumatized by the 2014 Ukraine coup. II-member.
Nina Jankowicz	An Integrity Initiative's Inner Core member who styled herself "The Mary Poppins of disinformation", nominal head of a US DoDS internet censorship project in 2022 which was disbanded amid condemnation and ridicule. In 2024 she resurfaced as head of the "American Sunlight Project".
Alina Mosendz	Member of the Integrity Initiative and StopFake

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