Andrew Darcy
Assigned Reading
January 24, 2009

“Web Hoaxes, Counterfeit Sites, and other Spurious Information on the Internet”
Author: Paul S. Piper

This article was one that opened up the eyes to many about the serious problem that arises as we increase in our dependence of technology. People surfing around the web in hopes of finding information that is credible, are finding it increasingly more difficult to do so because of the “savvy” of many people who manipulate the internet in many different and complex ways. These range from hoaxes that are for the public’s mere pleasure, all the way to sites that are aimed at duping the reader into donating money to a non-credible and heinous site. Throughout the article there are many ways that people trick the end user and about how their have been many actions to try to prohibit this from occurring. However, these groups that are formed to exacerbate this increasingly disastrous problem are unable to plunder through every website online to see which ones are credible and which ones are not. This article does a great job explaining about where to go if one feels if a site is not valid and also ways to check to make sure that what a reader is reading is in actuality something of legitimate substance.

Information is currently being conveyed to populations at a speed that no one could have ever predicted twenty years ago. This just shows one side to the story about how information and the internet has increased one’s knowledge of the outside world, but has also led people like myself to think critically about what I am reading because of the ease of manipulating data to make it seem like a reliable source. This article opened up my mind and I am sure others, about how to try to maneuver around a website to check its validity. Additionally, it will also make people think more critically about what they are reading on the web whether it is something humorous or something as serious as political propaganda.