FACEBOOK PRANKSTER POSING AS BHUTTO SON COULD HAVE BEEN A PAKISTANI AGENT
January 10th 2008 00:33
Facebook has been hit with a series of pranks including a French guy who fooled major media outlets into thinking he was the president of Facebook.
Another Facebook prankster posted a profile in which he claimed to be Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the 19-year-old son of the slain Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto.
Unfortunately for the press, quite a few big names picked up his quotes before the prank was discovered.
Toronto’s Globe & Mail and Agence France Presse, quoted some of his statements about Islam, such as “What’s Islamic extremism? It’s strict adherence to a particular interpretation of seventh century Islamic law as practiced by the prophet Mohammed, and when I say ’strict adherence’, I’m not kidding around.”
The story obviously illustrates the increasing difficulties for mainstream media to maintain their level of accuracy in the online world.
Newspapers are increasingly pressured to break news virtually immediately on the web, while trying to sustain their quality and accuracy checks. Secondly, the web has made it extremely easy to post fake or misleading news, which is quickly picked up, echoed and deformed in the age of the blogosphere and online buzz.
The identity of the prankster is unknown, but Bhutto associates have guessed it was a Pakistani government agent and The New York Times identified the prankster as someone who calls himself “Tonay.”
| 48 |
| Vote |
subscribe to this blog
