Did Russia and China just roll out a new currency that is 100% backed by gold? You would expect they did if you saw a news article titled "Russia And China Roll Out 100% Gold-Backed Currency" but you would be wrong.
In fact an article was published by YourNewsWire with just that title on March 25, 2018 (archived here) which opened:
Russia and China have outlined plans to create a 100 percent gold-backed currency system to replace the US dollar as the world's dominant currency.
The Central Bank of Russia has been steadily amassing vast gold reserves since 2015 - accumulating 1,828.56 tons by the end of 2017 - making it the fifth largest gold reserve in the world.
Goldtelegraph.com reports: Russia has been aggressively increasing its gold reserves for a reason. It has seen the US dollar dominate as a global currency and is working with China to end the US/Western currency supremacy.
Their strategy appears to be working. Russia and China are in the midst of rumors of introducing gold-backed futures to circumvent the U.S dollar.
So right away the article backpedals from the headline. From "roll out" it becomes "outlined plans". And by the fourth paragraph it is only "rumors" about "gold-backed futures". Quite the difference from rolling out a new currency. The article doesn't even mention a name for this supposed new currency which would probably be one of the first things potential investors would want to know about in order to ask around about buying it...
Investors who saw only this summary on social media might have gotten away with the wrong impression:
Russia And China Roll Out 100% Gold-Backed Currency
Russia and China have outlined plans to create a 100 percent gold-backed currency system to replace the US dollar as the world's dominant currency. The Central Bank of Russia has been steadily amassing vast gold reserves since 2015 - accumulating 1,828.56 tons by the end of 2017 - making it the fifth largest gold reserve in the world.
We wrote about yournewswire.com and the often inaccurate stories they publish before, here are our most recent articles about them:
- Fake News: NOT Busted, Soros Did NOT Pay March For Our Lives Protestors $300 Each
- Fake News: Pope Francis Did NOT Forgive 4,444 Pedophile Priests In Australia
- Fake News: Obama Did NOT Announce Bid To Become UN Secretary General
- Fake News: Missing CDC Doctor DID NOT Claim Flu Shot Caused Outbreak
- Fake News: Judge Did NOT Cut Pedophile's Prison Term Claiming 3-Yr-Old Asked To Be Raped
YourNewsWire has published several other hoaxes and fake news articles in the past so anything they write or publish should be taken with a large grain of salt. Their Facebook page "The People's Voice" recently lost its verification checkmark according to a report from MMFA.
The Terms of Use of the site also make it clear they don't really stand behind the accuracy of any of their reporting:
THE PEOPLE'S VOICE, INC. AND/OR ITS SUPPLIERS MAKE NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE SUITABILITY, RELIABILITY, AVAILABILITY, TIMELINESS, AND ACCURACY OF THE INFORMATION, SOFTWARE, PRODUCTS, SERVICES AND RELATED GRAPHICS CONTAINED ON THE SITE FOR ANY PURPOSE.
The site was profiled in the Hollywood reporter where it was described as:
Your News Wire, a 3-year-old website of murky facts and slippery spin, is published by Sean Adl-Tabatabai and Sinclair Treadway -- a Bernie Sanders supporter in 2016 -- out of an apartment in L.A.'s historic El Royale.
RationalWiki described it as:
YourNewsWire (styled as YourNewsWire.com[1]) is an Los Angeles-based clickbait fake news website known for disseminating conspiracy theories and misleading information, contrary to its claimed motto ("News. Truth. Unfiltered").[1]
A while ago we also reported that YourNewsWire had rebranded itself as NewsPunch by changing its domain name in an apparent effort to evade filtering/blocking. It appears the site has changed back to it's old name in the mean time but you can still see the NewsPunch name in the contact email address in the footer.
