That wired article points to an October 12th article[0] from the Washington Post as first using the term. The term doesn't seem to have been popularized until

That wired article points to an October 12th article[0] from the Washington Post as first using the term. The term doesn't seem to have been popularized until November 12th, when it takes off[1]. That's a full month later, but given the timing I think it's obvious why people suddenly started talking about it. Trump doesn't seem to have tweeted the term until December 10th[2]. At this point however I think he basically owns it. The British Government agrees with me that the term should be avoided[3]. It seems clear to me that no matter who started it, the word is in essence a propaganda term for 'propaganda.' [0] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2016/10/12/facebook-has-repeatedly-trended-fake-news-since-firing-its-human-editors/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2016/10... [1] https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2016-09-01%202016-12-31&geo=US&q=fake%20news https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=2016-09-01%202... [2] https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/807588632877998081 https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/80758863287799808... [3] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2018/10/22/government-bans-phrase-fake-news/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2018/10/22/government...