Did Ben Shapiro Create a Fake Antifa Recruitment Site?

Viral social media posts claimed that conservative pundit Ben Shapiro created a fake Antifa recruitment website. The basis for these claims was a message in the website’s source code that reads: “Welcome to Your New Site Mr. Shapiro Check for your welcome email at bshapiro@dailywire.com.” 

That exact message was, in fact, hidden in the source code of the website. However, it was planted there by a leftist troll named Adam Rahuba, who took credit for the prank shortly after it started going viral: 

https://twitter.com/adam_rahuba/status/1292805288165355520

The website asked those who are interested in joining to give information such as name, email address, city, and phone number to register as members of Antifa. After it went viral, Rahuba altered the website to link to another tweet in which he took credit for the website:

https://twitter.com/adam_rahuba/status/1292917499592400899

Shapiro, on the other hand, suggested another website which prospective-Antifa members could submit their personal information:

Photograph by Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons.

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