"Misinformation is a lucrative business in several Eastern European countries, reliant on advertising revenue, and pulling in cash from a variety of other sources including government subsidies, crowdfunding, tax designations, donations and sales of merchandise. The Business of Misinformation projec
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t, run by the Center for Media, Data and Society (CMDS), set out in its first phase to map the misinformation business in six countries: Bosnia & Herzegovina, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, and Slovakia. Our researches identified the individuals and businesses that own local misinformation websites and their links to institutions, parties and other individuals." (Publisher description)
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"The websites creating misinformation content in Bosnia and Herzegovina can be classified into four categories based on their financial and/or political motivations and the extent to which they provide valuable journalistic contributions. The majority of misinformation websites are motivated solely
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by profit which they generate via Google AdSense. Established media outlets engage in misinformation practices either to compete for readers' attention or on behalf of their political patrons. Two relatively secretive websites have established themselves as influential leaders in misinformative propaganda, primarily preoccupied with benefiting their political patrons rather than obtaining profits. Due to secrecy and lack of regulation, it is extremely difficult to establish the financial background of these websites." (Main findings, page 1)
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