Waking up stumped by the idea that I’ve been duped, I ran a few Google searches that revealed other people also having doubts about the veracity of the three-part series.
One anonymous Quora user pointed out the following;
In my case I found that their Twitter feed (East Asia Tribune) has only a couple dozen followers, which is strange for a purportedly large news organization (Their own About page says that they’ve been in business since 1972 and lists offices around the world, but these offices do not seem to exist based on separate searches for them.)
Another user, Jasmine Kok, had this to say about the East Asia Tribune;
I joined quora just to answer this. I’m pretty sure it’s fake. 1) the address on the website is fake (the postal code and street address don’t match, and there is no building in Shanghai called the east Asia tribune tower.) 2) the “serious” articles go back about three weeks. Any article posted before mid-March 2016 is nonsense. They also have no articles pre-dating mid 2015. 3) there is practically no info available on the internet about the east Asia tribune. You’d think a legit news provider would have at least a wiki entry. 4) most damning – I left a comment on their Facebook page setting out the above three points and it was deleted almost immediately.
I have no way of checking if the Quora users were legit, but this was enough for me to continue digging for more information.
WHOIS CHECK ON THE DOMAIN EASTASIATRIBUNE.COM
Running a WHOIS check on East Asia Tribune’s domain name, eastasiatribune.com, revealed the following information;
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Domain Name: EASTASIATRIBUNE.COM
Registry Domain ID: 2014835663_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.enom.com
Registrar URL: www.enom.com
Updated Date: 2016-04-08T02:06:48.00Z
Creation Date: 2016-03-23T02:04:00.00Z
Registrar Registration Expiration Date: 2017-03-23T02:04:00.00Z
Registrar: ENOM, INC.
Registrar IANA ID: 48
Domain Status: clientTransferProhibited https://www.icann.org/epp#clientTransferProhibited
Registry Registrant ID:
Registrant Name: WHOIS AGENT
Registrant Organization: WHOIS PRIVACY PROTECTION SERVICE, INC.
Registrant Street: PO BOX 639
Registrant Street: C/O EASTASIATRIBUNE.COM
Registrant City: KIRKLAND
Registrant State/Province: WA
Registrant Postal Code: 98083
Registrant Country: US
Registrant Phone: +1.4252740657
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax: +1.4259744730
Registrant Fax Ext:
Registrant Email:
Registry Admin ID:
Admin Name: WHOIS AGENT
Admin Organization: WHOIS PRIVACY PROTECTION SERVICE, INC.
Admin Street: PO BOX 639
Admin Street: C/O EASTASIATRIBUNE.COM
Admin City: KIRKLAND
Admin State/Province: WA
Admin Postal Code: 98083
Admin Country: US
Admin Phone: +1.4252740657
Admin Phone Ext:
Admin Fax: +1.4259744730
Admin Fax Ext:
Admin Email:
Registry Tech ID:
Tech Name: WHOIS AGENT
Tech Organization: WHOIS PRIVACY PROTECTION SERVICE, INC.
Tech Street: PO BOX 639
Tech Street: C/O EASTASIATRIBUNE.COM
Tech City: KIRKLAND
Tech State/Province: WA
Tech Postal Code: 98083
Tech Country: US
Tech Phone: +1.4252740657
Tech Phone Ext:
Tech Fax: +1.4259744730
Tech Fax Ext:
Tech Email:
Name Server: NS162249439.A2DNS.COM
Name Server: NS162254252110.A2DNS.COM
DNSSEC: unSigned
Registrar Abuse Contact Email:
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.4252982646
URL of the ICANN WHOIS Data Problem Reporting System: http://wdprs.internic.net/
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See http://whois.domaintools.com/eastasiatribune.com
The WHOIS information reveals that East Asia Tribune’s domain was purchased only last March 23, 2016. I’ll just leave that here and let that bit of info speak for itself.
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