The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

Anatomy of an Online Hoax

Posted on | December 29, 2010 | 10 Comments

Peter Steiner long ago captured perfectly how the online world has abetted deceit: “On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.”

Brooks Baynes tells the story of a “a woman who went by the name Jo Von Hollenzollern,” formerly known as @femmepatriot on Twitter, who insinuated herself among online Tea Party activists and seems to have hoaxed a lot of people. Furthermore, Brooks suspects this same person may have since emerged under new aliases to perpetrate a new hoax.

People who engage in that kind of activity are destroying a precious commodity: Trust.

But as Reagan said, our policy should be “Trust but verify.” It appears that some people vouched for @femmepatriot based only on their online connnections and/or telephone conversations with someone they’d never met. Having these people vouch for her gave @femmepatriot an underserved credibility.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers! As one of the commenters notes, we’re not 100% sure Professor Reynolds is human. There’s something vaguely Vulcan about him . . .


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Comments

  • Joe

    The point of this story: At least you know what you are getting when you donate to TOM!

  • http://twitter.com/granitesentry Danny Lee

    I’m real. Wait a minute. Yup.

  • Anonymous

    Of course you’re real – you’re typing on a keyboard, aren’t you? The question is: are you genuine?

    http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/
    “Because the Only Good Progressive is a Failed Progressive”

  • http://profiles.yahoo.com/u/EU5DQWQTTHTPO4A4ZYSL3AAV2U Adjoran

    You have to be able to sniff out a phony. For instance, I can spot a dog in comments or message boards in just a few posts. The tendency to bark for no reason, the inordinate hostility towards kittehs . . . dead give-aways.

    Only about 10% of people post their real picture, and those are usually at least 10 years old.

    As hundreds of officials have demonstrated over the years, it really isn’t so hard to get large sums of money smuggled out of Nigeria.

    Ace and AllahP were secretly married in Massachusetts early this year. Charles Johnson’s brain was destroyed by oxygen deprivation caused by his obsessive sniffing of his own bicycle seat.

    Glenn Greenwald is not a real person. He’s Max Headroom without the charm.

    If I remember any other cool interwebs secrets I’ll pass ‘em on.

  • Pingback: Instapundit » Blog Archive » ADVICE TO TEA PARTIERS: Trust, But Verify….

  • Guest

    Reagan was right – trust but verify. Why shouldn’t the left still be playing from the Alinsky book? Why should we trust that they aren’t trying to infiltrate? Remember the few racist signs that occasionally show up at the edge of a Tea Party event? Who? Why? We must be vigilant…

  • Iodides

    …and Glenn Reynolds is not human, but everybody knows that.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_NK5UZPOZQPFF67SQATULO3OENA shoey

    “Ace and AllahP were secretly married in Massachusetts early this year. ”

    crikey, i knew they were engaged but …

  • http://twitter.com/Dandapani Dandapani

    My name José Jiménez.

  • Anonymous

    There’s a reason I picked this avatar…..

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