Grftr was founded in July 2020 as a website and discussion forum dedicated to countering online disinformation, misleading stories, via factual debunkings, criticism, analysis, and review.
Together with your help, we can become a resource to combat misleading information which is endangering our political processes, families, health, and safety.
What are our goals?
We aim to provide a platform directed at the disseminating fact-led material as well as high impact stories which spark discussion and raise important undercovered issues.
Our initial launch aim was to collaboratively create resources to help combat online disinformation artists and misleading stories.
Why Do You Focus on Tim Pool so much?
This website was originally an off-shoot of the twitter account @TimPoolClips. Pool is far from the only focus of this website and as we continue to evolve, Pool will become an increasingly small part of our coverage.
The original focus on Pool was because according to our research Pool appeared to be the most viewed rightwing Youtuber. Although established rightwing brands such as Fox News still beat him on view counts he dominated his competition in the alternative media sphere beating out the likes of Ben Shapiro, Prager U, Steven Crowder and more by tens of millions of monthly views. Pool also makes thousands of dollars from his daily livestreams and channel sponsors. In July 2019 Tim Pool was invited to visit the White House by Donald Trump and Pool has also quizzed Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast – the biggest podcast in the world. Yet despite all this Pool has received little attention. We hoped to change this by analysing and debunking Pool’s content and foster discussions about his work and influence.
What is a grifter?
In our view, a grifter is anyone who uses online or offline resources to make a quick buck at the expense of principles and empathy and without regard to the harm they are doing. No political, religious, or cultural group has a monopoly on grifters, they exist everywhere.
Grifting is less about any specific act and more about a prolonged pattern of behavior and speech. Real-world impact is also crucial factors to bear in mind.
While intent is an important factor it is also impossible to ever truly know a person’s mind so claimed intent should hold little sway when evaluating an alleged grifter. That said mere imagined intent should also not be the sole basis for designating a person a grifter.
Some grifters may well claim to have a consistent worldview. A political grifter may well claim to be working from “classically liberal” or “center left” principles and a science/health grifter might claim to be using “science” or “the scientific method” however when the totality of their output and impact is observed the true story becomes more clear.
Is everyone you cover a grifter?
Nope! We will cover other people and events too from time to time. The mere fact that someone is mentioned or covered on our website says nothing about whether they are a grifter or not.
How can I help?
You need no previous experience with… well anything but if you’re a journalist, content producer, expert in a specific field, techy person, editor (of any medium), podcaster etc… we’d be delighted to chat with you.
We are still in the very early stages of this process and will definitely experience teething problems so please be gentle and forgiving.
You can get in touch either via DMing us on twitter @TimPoolClips or contacting us via the contact form on this website.
Note: The definitions set forth on this page are interim and subject to change at a later date. They are not to be read as confirmed or forever fixed.
Disclaimer: Any claims made on this page are pure opinion. Nothing is to be read as a factual allegation that any identifiable person, organisation, or group of people engages in any knowingly dishonest behavior or that they are engaged in any efforts to defraud, mislead, or harm their audience or any other person, organisation, or group of people.