Reading #1

I admire Paul S. Piper and his unfastened approach to Internet fraudulence in his book “Web Hoaxes, Counterfeit Sites, and Other Spurious Information on the Internet”.  He provides an excruciatingly detailed outline of the various and MULTIPLE examples of erroneous information found on the Web.

The websites and their messages vary just about as much as the different types of categories they are placed. For example, there is a hoax about the animal rights group Anti Hunting Happy Association. The site claimed that deer were captured and put in orange vests so that hunters would mistake them for other hunters and not shoot them. This website, seemingly harmless and very funny made it to big entertainment/informative websites like FOX.com and ESPN.com. Shows how well they checked the validity of that news. Then again there are darker sides to Internet fraudulence. Sites like martinlutherking.org are malicious and provide disinformation.  They give false, unsupported information about King. These malicious/disinformation websites take a very radical approach to many events like the Holocaust. Many incorporate politics, and religion through pernicious content or parody and spoof.

While reading this article my first question was to ask, “Why haven’t these websites been shut down?” I realized however, that these conspiracy websites challenge people to think, and I am all for Internet neutrality and freedom. I admire Piper’s ability to look at both sides of the issue as well.  On page 19 he states, “Only a truly free society can allow free exchange of ideas regardless of how reprehensible they might seem.” Although these websites may provide false content, they still provide a new perspective and give people the right to think beyond and question things.

However, I do have qualms with a varied number of topics discussed. I was disturbed by the story about the Serbian hackers, the “Black Hand” and how easily they infiltrated the government websites of various countries. I also found the excerpt about false health information very unnerving. The information about AIDs  is dangerous and could really misguide people. Also, I think if information is going to be false, websites should not be allowed to trap the audience, like when the disinformation is linked with a title saying “Student Research Page”.

Indeed Piper researched his topic well and provided a mosaic of varied and resourceful examples. I enjoyed reading this article, although lengthy.