Yahoo; Russia responsible for Antifa. com
On Wednesday, Republican Matthew Foldi, pointed out that typing Anifa.com into a browser brings up the website only to automatically redirect to Joe Biden’s campaign page, something that caused quite the flurry on Twitter.
After an avalanche of Twitter users decided to put it to the test, and some affirming this oddity, the Antifa site became unavailable, either bombing out or temporarily closed down.
This, in the latest chapter of the Russia-gate conspiracy files on Russian meddling in the U.S. elections.
When a One America News correspondent at the White House asked President Donald Trump about it, that was a red flag for Yahoo! News reporter Hunter Walker.
He opined that OAN is a pro-Trump network that promotes “conspiracy theories” and employs someone who also works for Sputnik, which is “Russian propaganda.”
Here’s the real catch, he searched internet records for Antifa.com and reported the site linked to, wait for it, Russia, with the domain registered in the Russian Federation from 2013 through to last July.
Then Walker’s report was promoted by PropOrNot, a shadowy anonymous outfit, which the Washington Post insists are experts on Russian propaganda.
According to Mashable, the Yahoo story “substantially misunderstands” the archived history of the domain.
The reason for the Russian link is WhoisGuard is a privacy service that used a contractor based in St. Petersburg at the time.
That alone “does not tell us anything about where the registrant is actually based,” Mashable added, conceding that Russia “could possibly be” behind the redirect, but there is “zero proof” of that.
Buzz Feed reporter Craig Silverman also slammed Walker’s article as shoddy, noting that it hinges solely on the fact that whoever registered antifa.com once used a Russian domain privacy service.
“That’s it? Come on, don’t do this,” Silverman tweeted, “Don’t cite domain records if you don’t know what they mean! Yahoo should retract this story.”
Confronted with these findings, Walker stood by his claim, saying “the little public info we have on this site that had an odd George Floyd protest message and popped up in the [White House] briefing is a link to Russia.”
Mercy, there’s still 76 days, 20 hours, 28 minutes and 45 seconds to the U.S. elections.
