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Google reportedly serves fake ads to fact-checking sites
It's not just Facebook that has a fake news advertising problem. Google also found evidence of Russian influence in the most recent US presidential election, and reportedly set up anti-Muslim ads (which it subsequently shut down). Now, according to a report in The New York Times, fake ads that look like news are appearing on sites that actively try to counter fake news, including Politifact and Snopes.
Politifact inadvertently hosted a digital currency miner
You might expect a pirate website to use something as shady as a secret cryptocurrency miner, but that's now becoming a problem with above-board sites -- and it's not on purpose. Politifact visitors have discovered that the site was inadvertently hosting JavaScript code that hijacked your processor to mine virtual coins. The fact checker tells TechCrunch that it has removed the code and is investigating just how it got there, but it's more than a little alarming that such a popular page (3.2 million views per month) could be susceptible to parasitic code that bogs down your PC.
