Has a browser bookmark label and the "XRVision Sentinel AI Platform" proved that bloggers found a PornHub account belonging to Hunter Biden that contains images of a family member without her knowledge and permission?
No, that's not true. Labels on bookmarks saved in a web browser contain no unique identifying information and the owner of the "XRVision" platform has not proven "XRVision" is anything more than an illustration on a slide deck, offering no technical nor evidentiary information that connects the younger Biden to a PornHub account.
The claim appeared in an article (archived here) published by Gateway Pundit on October 29, 2020, titled "HUGE BREAKING EXCLUSIVE" which opened:
Hunter Biden Has a PornHub Account Where He Uploaded His Personal Porn - Including with Family Member. The Biden Family wants America to believe that they are the typical hard working American family, but nothing could be further from the truth.
Users on social media only saw this title, description and thumbnail:
HUGE BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: Hunter Biden Has a PornHub Account Where He Uploaded His Personal Porn - Including with Family Member
The Biden Family wants America to believe that they are the typical hard working American family, but nothing could be further from the truth. Joe Biden said his son Hunter had done "nothing but good things his whole life" per the Daily Mail in a report on Valentine's day earlier this year: Joe Biden on...
Gateway Pundit writer Joe Hoft wrote that a screenshot is what links Hunter Biden to an account on PornHub, a Montreal-based pornographic video-sharing website. Users who register a Pornhub account may post comments, download videos and upload videos. Hoft wrote:
We know this is Hunter's account and one of the reasons is because of the screen shot below where one of his pages bookmarked is 'Joe Biden Smiling'
There is nothing unique about a browser bookmark that proves what computer it is on nor who created it. Once a computer user saves a bookmark, the "manage bookmarks" function allows renaming to anything.
The other "evidence" Hoft included in his story is a photo collage from "The Illustrated Primer" a WordPress blog authored by Yaacov Apelbaum.
There is no recognizable image of Hunter Biden in the collage, which purports to include images from a Hunter Biden PornHub account. Apelbaum provides no named source, document nor other proof of the headline claim that "content has been authenticated to known individuals and family."
Lead Stories has reached out to Hoft and to Apelbaum to ask how they made the connection and "authenticated" the content. This report will be updated, if appropriate, when they respond.
On Apelbaum's blog, Apelbaum wrote: "The following is the confirmed and validated Pornhub profile of RHEast AKA Harper, AKA Hunter Biden." Apelbaum also wrote. "Content includes a Biden family member."
In that blog post, under "References and Sourcing," Apelbaum listed XRVision Sentinel AI Platform, but none of the kind of image-matching, electronic trails or financial records by which an anonymous account could be linked to a specific person. The hyperlink from his blog opens this illustration:
Elsewhere, he refers to it as a face recognition, image reconstruction and object classification technology. The link to XRVision's website contains a single image and no links to information pages.
On LinkedIn, Apelbaum lists himself as CTO of XRVision. The link to the company opens to a large logo with none of the customary links to "About Us" pages or other information. There is only an email address: [email protected]
Also on LinkedIn, Apelbaum claims to have been CTO of "Homeland Security and Defense." That link opens a job search for homeland security and defense jobs.
The Apelbaum LinkedIn page also claims he was CTO of Dun & Bradstreet, the business rating and intelligence firm. Lead Stories found no online references to him in that high-level post and has reached out to Dun & Bradstreet to confirm Apelbaum's employment there and will update this report, as appropriate, when they reply.
Apelbaum's LinkedIn profile also claims he was "VP Secure eCommerce Technology" at Western Union from 2000 to 2006. Lead Stories searched online for any reference to him in that role and found none. Lead Stories has reached out to Western Union to confirm Apelbaum's employment there and will update this report, as appropriate, when they reply.
Lead Stories searched for online reference to any corporation, government or other organization using "XRVision Sentinel AI Platform" and found none.
NewsGuard, a company that uses trained journalist to rank the reliability of websites, describes thegatewaypundit.com as:
A partisan conservative website that regularly publishes hoaxes, conspiracy theories, and unsubstantiated claims, including those related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to NewsGuard the site does not maintain basic standards of accuracy and accountability. Read their full assessment here.
