🙈 fakenews

A collection of fake news outlets. Currently blocking 2,197 untrustworthy sites.

Purpose

This is a small attempt to limit my exposure to sites that fall under the umbrella of “fake news.” It blocks sites that willfully and regularly spread clickbait, hoaxes, propaganda and disinformation.

Usage

This file is formatted as a standard hosts file, so you can simply append it to your current hosts file. I recommend using it with @StevenBlack’s hosts tool, which lets you build a robust hosts file from a variety of frequently updated sources.

Where to find your hosts file:

• Mac OS, Linux: /etc/hosts
• Windows: %SystemRoot%\system32\drivers\etc\hosts

Personal Bias Disclosure

Defining what is or is not “fake news” in today’s political environment is challenging. Within a few weeks of the 2016 U.S. election, the term quickly became adopted by many to simply mean “news I don’t agree with.” Looking at the list, you may notice the vast majority of political sites blocked are far-right conservative in focus. While I would consider myself centrist to left-leaning, I have made a concerted effort to limit this list to sites that meet the purpose listed above. There are certainly additions and omissions to this list which would be judged differently by another curator. I encourage you to edit this list to meet your needs as you see fit.

Improvements

I initially built this file mostly by grabbing bits and pieces from various sources, and then adding sites on an ad-hoc basis as I learned of them, so this list is by no means complete yet. Please submit pull requests with additions and corrections.

In the future, this list will be broken out by category (e.g. “Hoaxes”, “Satire”, “Propaganda” etc) to enable easier customization for the end user.