To the Editor

For Release

Author: Patricia Liller

Internet Became Desinformation Superhighway In A Matter Of = Days

It's human nature to want to believe that what we see on the printed = page=20 actually represents reality. We've tended to accept the proposition that = what we=20 read in reputable newspapers or hear from the mass media wouldn't be = printed or=20 broadcast unless there were at least some truth in what was being = disseminated.=20

But it wasn’t until FakedNews.com appeared on the Internet this = November that=20 such a flow of misinformation and hoaxes hit the Internet. FakedNews.com = suggested to write a news story about your friend, relative etc. and = make it=20 appear as if the story were published on some of the most trustworthy = news=20 websites – CNN, The Washington Post, etc.

The URLs of the articles didn’t differ from CNN’s or that = of other news=20 websites. Add to this the media's natural pattern with working interface = - and=20 the article looked perfectly inside the website.

Guessing why I’m writing about FakedNews in past tense? On = November, 12=20 reaching the level of 85,000 unique visitors/day it collapsed because fo = traffic=20 overflow. One of the aims of running the project was to try information = pyramid=20 principle – each visitor makes two news stories on average and = sends them to the=20 so-called victims – characters of the stories – then after = the victims find out=20 that the news is a joke, they come to the website and in their turn make = two=20 news stories each.

Though the purpose was preliminary to bring recreation and fun = services, many=20 Internet surfers used FakedNews in order to spread rumors about = pop-stars and=20 politicians. Artem Orel, one of the creators of FakedNews, comments on = the fact:=20 “We expected that some people could abuse our service, but we did = everything to=20 prevent it. After reading the news, when you close the window, a = fast-loading=20 pop-up appears to tell you that the news is faked!”

Though it’s unknown how much of the public understood that the = news about=20 Bush’s anhtrax and Aguillera’s death were fake, these news = stories drew=20 attention of 30,000 visitors within first hours after being posted on = FakedNews.=20 Moreover, several US newspapers even reprinted the articles – = probably some=20 “jokers” sent the links to the articles to the mass media. =

Now after the short FakedNews epidemic it’s not necessarily = obvious to=20 Internet users whether they should believe the news they read, even if = they are=20 published on CNN, or not.

Author: Patricia Liller E-mail: patricia-liller@journalist.com

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