--- title: James Comey Says Americans Should Be Wary of Fake News description: FBI director James Comey warned Americans that information they read on the Internet may be part of organized disinformation campaigns canonical: https://time.com/4739556/james-comey-fbi-fake-news-warning/ author: Abigail Abrams article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-04-14T00:11:33.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-31T10:53:41.450Z article:section: Politics og:title: James Comey Says Americans Should Be Wary of 'Troll Farms' Peddling Fake News og:description: He said people pushing fake news have gotten more sophisticated og:url: https://time.com/4739556/james-comey-fbi-fake-news-warning/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteacdbc3f1f8d0973/6988c2c2ab6d779aff6ad9b3/james-comey-fbi-director-fake-news.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3300 og:image:height: 1856 og:image:alt: Capitol Hill - Washington, DC og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: James Comey Says Americans Should Be Wary of 'Troll Farms' Peddling Fake News twitter:description: He said people pushing fake news have gotten more sophisticated twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteacdbc3f1f8d0973/6988c2c2ab6d779aff6ad9b3/james-comey-fbi-director-fake-news.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # James Comey Says Americans Should Be Wary of 'Troll Farms' Peddling Fake News > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=cb00016b-95b4-4529-9006-f08960264268&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) by [Abigail Abrams](https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/) ## Abigail Abrams Apr 14, 2017 12:11 AM UTC  FBI director James Comey appears in front of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence at the Longworth House Office Building on March 20, 2017, in Washington, D.C. FBI director James Comey appears in front of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence at the Longworth House Office Building on March 20, 2017, in Washington, D.C. Matt McClain—The Washington Post/Getty Images by [Abigail Abrams](https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/) ## Abigail Abrams Apr 14, 2017 12:11 AM UTC FBI director [James Comey](http://time.com/4739494/fbi-james-comey-dick-wolf-tv-series/?xid=homepage) warned Americans that information they read on the Internet may be part of organized disinformation campaigns aimed at undermining confidence in U.S. elections. Opponents of the U.S. “used all kinds of vectors to try and influence and undermine our own faith in our democratic processes,” Comey said at an event at the Newseum in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, the [Associated Press](https://apnews.com/981fa961d82943c88e5270595c473958/FBI-director:-Public-should-know-of-agenda-driven-fake-news?utm%5Fcampaign=SocialFlow&utm%5Fsource=Twitter&utm%5Fmedium=AP%5FPolitics) reports. Comey said the FBI would publicly call out efforts to interfere in American politics and added that the public should also be on guard. “The most important thing to be done is people need to be aware of the possibility that what they’re reading has been shaped by troll farms looking to push a message on Twitter to undermine our confidence” in the electoral process, Comey said, according to AP. U.S. intelligence agencies said in a January report that Russian attempts to support Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election involved paid social-media users, according to AP. Last month, [Comey confirmed](http://time.com/4706646/fbi-russia-james-comey-testimony/?iid=sr-link6) the FBI is investigating Russian interference in the U.S. election and [potential links](http://time.com/4707410/comey-hearing-donald-trump-setbacks/?iid=sr-link9) between Russians and the Trump campaign. The FBI does not typically discuss ongoing investigations, but Comey confirmed the Russia investigations at a hearing before the House Intelligence Committee. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4739556/james-comey-fbi-fake-news-warning/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4739556/james-comey-fbi-fake-news-warning/"},"headline":"James Comey Says Americans Should Be Wary of 'Troll Farms' Peddling Fake News","datePublished":"2017-04-14T00:11:33.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T10:53:41.450Z","description":"He said people pushing fake news have gotten more sophisticated","url":"https://time.com/4739556/james-comey-fbi-fake-news-warning/","keywords":["FBI","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteacdbc3f1f8d0973/6988c2c2ab6d779aff6ad9b3/james-comey-fbi-director-fake-news.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Abigail Abrams","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/abigail-abrams/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blteacdbc3f1f8d0973/6988c2c2ab6d779aff6ad9b3/james-comey-fbi-director-fake-news.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Capitol Hill - Washington, DC","caption":"Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, James Comey appears in front of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence at the Longworth House Office Building on March 20, 2017 in Washington, D.C.","creditText":"Matt McClain—The Washington Post/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/fbi/","name":"FBI"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4739556/james-comey-fbi-fake-news-warning/","name":"James Comey Says Americans Should Be Wary of 'Troll Farms' Peddling Fake News"}}]}] ```