[jobu]

In the US it seems like the stuff that really goes viral is just bullshit schemed up by people trying to make a few bucks: http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/11/23/503...

And as the stories spread, Coler makes money from the ads on his websites. He wouldn't give exact figures, but he says stories about other fake-news proprietors making between $10,000 and $30,000 a month apply to him.

Here's a great example of the effect these stories can have:

He was amazed at how quickly fake news could spread and how easily people believe it. He wrote one fake story for NationalReport.net about how customers in Colorado marijuana shops were using food stamps to buy pot. "What that turned into was a state representative in the House in Colorado proposing actual legislation to prevent people from using their food stamps to buy marijuana based on something that had just never happened," Coler says.

Longer (audio) version of the story here: http://www.npr.org/sections/money/2016/12/02/504155809/episo...

[ZeroGravitas]

As much as that author may wish to take all the credit, "Poor/Black people using food stamps to buy things that anger conservatives" is a long established genre in certain media circles, and it's clear he just put a small twist on it.

The most recent one I saw was people using food stamps to buy food from Amazon. I don't even understand why that's a bad thing, but someone wrote a story trying to gin up some outrage over it.

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/01/16/amazon-be...

http://www.infowars.com/amazon-to-accept-food-stamps-under-n...

[tangent128]

The "logic" probably goes that somebody with internet access is well-off enough to not need food assistance.

(Internet access still being seen as a luxury rather than a necessity to participate in modern society/economy.)