How to Write a Fake

How to Write a Fake *(TORI English Edition)*

This article is a **guide for detecting, analyzing, and constructing fake news**, propaganda pieces, pseudoscientific announcements, and other forms of fabricated “information.”
It is intentionally written in a satirical tone: **it tells you how to create a fake so that the reader may learn how to recognize one**.

In the narrow sense, a **fake** is *fabricated information presented as fact*. In a broader TORI sense, a fake is **any statement or message that claims factuality but violates the TORI axioms: transparency, verifiability, replicability, attribution, and falsifiability.

TORI studies **what is**, not **what should be**. Therefore, this article does not condemn fakes morally; it merely describes the mechanisms by which they are produced and detected.

Title

Begin with a **grandiose, content-free headline**. It must promise great revelations while saying nothing.

Examples:

• *Scientists Are Shocked by This Discovery!*
• *Experts Finally Tell the Truth!*
• *Everyone Must See This!*
• *Internet Explodes Over New Finding!*
• *Urgent Warning for All Citizens!*

Note: The Internet “explodes” very frequently, yet servers continue to operate normally. Such headlines help experienced readers recognize fakes instantly.

The Fake Link

To create a proper fake, cite a **nonexistent or unverifiable source**.

A fake link may:

1. **Not be clickable at all**. 2. Lead to a **paywalled** or irrelevant site. 3. Lead to a **404 page**. 4. Lead to the **homepage** of an institution unrelated to the claim. 5. Refer to a “confidential internal document” that no one can inspect.

Readers who follow the link will instantly understand that the message is not trustworthy.

Note: A link can become broken *after* publication, so the mere presence of broken links does not automatically imply a fake. TORI editors try to preserve copies of suspect materials when possible.

Anonymity of Sources

Avoid mentioning **full names, affiliations, dates, publications, or report numbers**.

Instead, write:

• *Scientists have proven that…*
• *Experts determined that…*
• *Authorities confirmed that…*
• *Police sources report that…*

Anonymous or untraceable “experts” are a hallmark of fabricated information.

A weaker version of this technique uses a real but obscure name. A search engine will produce hundreds of unrelated homonyms, making verification effectively impossible.

Example

Below is an authentic English-language fake, copied here for analysis:

> *Scientists from a prestigious European institute have conclusively proven that the Earth’s core is undergoing catastrophic destabilization. A confidential report, leaked to several news outlets, warns of an imminent geophysical collapse. Satellite data show unprecedented anomalies. Authorities urge calm while monitoring the situation.*

This text reveals several traits of a fake:

• unnamed “scientists”;
• unnamed “institute”;
• missing publication details;
• invented “confidential report”;
• no data, no numbers, no dates;
• impossible to verify.

"Quotes"

Insert a dramatic statement and attribute it to a famous person. Ensure that the original text is unavailable, or paywalled, or poorly digitized.

Readers who search for the phrase will find nothing, and will understand that the entire story is fabricated.

"Facts” Only You Know

Support your fake claim with other fake claims. Useful introductory phrases include:

• *Everyone knows that…*
• *It is scientifically proven that…*
• *It is obvious that…*
• *For reasons that are clear to all…*
• *As researchers unanimously agree…*

Experienced readers will immediately detect that such phrases **replace evidence with bluffing**.

Better still, cite a source that itself contains no verifiable data — thus creating a **recursive fake**.

Example

In such propaganda, layers of hearsay substitute for verifiable fact.

Unfalsifiability

Include the key word **“undeniable”** or **“irrefutable.”**

Examples:

• *Irrefutable evidence reveals…*
• *Experts have undeniably demonstrated…*
• *Authorities confirm without possibility of doubt…*

A concept that cannot, even theoretically, be falsified is **not scientific** and often indicates a fake. A message that is validated regardless of what happens is **non-predictive** and **useless** for practical reasoning.

Discussion Behavior

Even if your fake is weak, you may still protect it by controlling the discussion:

• **Ignore questions.**
• **Change the subject.**
• **Address the person, not the argument.**
• **Use insults, slang, and hostile tone.**
• **Refuse to provide sources.**
• **Accuse opponents of ignorance or bias.**
• **Threaten, mock, or belittle.**

Readers will observe that your behavior avoids scrutiny and will correctly infer that your message is unreliable.

Some of these techniques resemble those described in Beklemishev’s essay *“Notes on Female Logic.”* The connection is structural, not gendered: the essay catalogs **logical fallacies** often exploited in emotional argumentation.

Filler Words

In spoken fakes, include **meaningless verbal fillers** to signal that you are improvising:

• “uh”, “um”,
• “you know”,
• “like”,
• “sort of”,
• “basically”,
• “I mean”,
• “it turns out”,
• “apparently”,
• “go figure”.

These indicate that the speaker is constructing the fake *on the fly*.

Postscript

This guide is intentionally humorous, but its purpose is serious:

• to help writers construct easily recognizable fakes (for didactic purposes),
• and to help readers recognize the rhetorical patterns that identify fabricated information.

If you use techniques not listed here, please inform the Editor so they may be added to this article.

Notes by Editor

The first version of this article is generated by ChatGPT as English analogy of Russian article «Как писать фейки».

Minimal formatting is applied by Editor.

This article still requires some polishing.

The later versions may deviate from the original.

References

• You can add your wiki’s references here.*

Keywords

«Axioms of TORI», «Fake», «Female logic», «Fraud», «Gravitsapa», «How to Write a Fake», «Motivated reasoning», «Newspeak», «Propaganda», «Pseudoscience», «Rule of Newspeak», «TORI axioms».

«Гравицапа», «Заметки о женской логике», «Как писать фейки», «Квантовый структурный преобразователь», «Правило новояза», «Пропаганда»,