Fake news fuelling riots? The warnings were there as bots industrialize disinformation

19.08.2024/10.27

For anyone who has followed my battles with bot-written and bot-based junk this year, this should come as no surprise: The UK riots were fuelled by the same kind of website, with the same raison d’être. This one was in Pakistan, where, sadly, some of the disinformation sites about me have come from. […]

Finally, a proper right of reply

16.05.2024/12.39

Finally, my own blog appears up top in one of the Google searches that Semrush claims is happening, but it really isn’t—except maybe by their third-party data supplier’s bots, and me since the misinformation started a few months ago. In fact, the first five slots are truthful, including Scoop’s republication of our release, until […]

Nexorank: stay well away from this ‘international SEO agency’

14.04.2024/09.52

Just doing a little experiment with SEO. Nexorank has a couple dozen entries in Google for a search for its name. They say on Linkedin: Exciting news for businesses striving to boost their online presence! 🚀 We’re thrilled to announce our partnership with SEO expert Jack Yan. 🔍 With his proven track record of […]

You can post misinformation on Linkedin, and there are no consequences

11.04.2024/12.32

It’s official: unlike Medium, Linkedin has confirmed that it will not remove posts that misuse my name under the grounds of misinformation. After the initial report, and a request for a review, Linkedin determined ‘After reviewing the content, we didn’t find any violations of our policies.’ Summary: I reported the misinformation as misinformation to Linkedin. […]

Two Mastodon polls: on 50 shades of Grade, and the best non-Bond Roger Moore film

07.04.2024/12.19

Asking the tough questions on Mastodon. Very tiny samples, and I was limited to four possible answers—but now you know. Meanwhile, I see Linkedin has not been very good at removing misinformation about me. Not as bad as Quora, but still down there. The latest post says ‘jackyan’ is a metaphor for […]

What do the authors of misinformation have to gain?

30.03.2024/03.01

Medium, which has been great at removing misinformation about me, rightly asked (after removing yet another fake story about me), ‘Why are they using your name? What are they gaining?’ I replied: Thank you, and I’m glad you’ve asked. I’ve been trying to get to the bottom of this for a while, ever since these […]

SEO scams, and two outfits to avoid

14.03.2024/21.25

Recent events have reiterated how a lot of the SEO profession—I’d say almost all of it, except for a tiny sliver of people who really know what they are doing—is a crock. The good news is you can confirm which ones are the crooks by seeing who had posted lies about me. Usually they write […]

Google fails to downrank junk sites; Bing and Mojeek fare better

12.02.2024/05.26

Understandably, I was bemused but then frustrated with the fake articles out there about the new Google algorithm update being created by me and named for me. (Even Perplexity has picked up this misinformation.) Of all those I found and reached out to, only one author—Shahid Jafar—had the decency to remove his article and apologize. […]

States of play for Facebook, Linkedin and OnlyKlans

04.08.2023/12.44

Over a decade ago, I watched as Facebook intentionally broke organic reach and Lucire’s plummeted 90 per cent overnight. It was clear what Zuckerberg’s grift was: to get us to pay to boost posts. But there was already, back then, plenty of reasons you shouldn’t: it was buggy as heck. Fast forward to 2014 and […]

Panos: My Life, My Odyssey in illustrious company

05.07.2023/09.38

I was thrilled to read this review about Panos: My Life, My Odyssey from Nikolas Venios, founder of the Ideas Agency in Gloucester. From his Linkedin (with his full post embedded using Linkedin’s own code at the end): Panos Papadopoulos has written one of the best business/strategy/life/creativity books I have ever read (and I […]