Reading Report 2

The article “Web Hoaxes, Counterfeit Sites, and Other Spurious Information on the Internet”, talks about a fake/ made up website that talk about “lip balm addictions”.  When asked about the credibility of the website, the author referred to his site as misinformative, however, many people believed it and took it seriously by following his twelve step plan.  It goes on to talk about the classification of other false sites, such as false advertising sites are categorized as malicious, and “spoof/parody” websites are considered to be funny and humorous, but misleading.  The Martin Luther King Jr. site was created and passed off as the an official site, however it went on to defame him with the false claims about him “partying with women” and being a member of the communist party.  After talking about counterfeit websites, it talks about suspicious websites, which discusses the website that claimed that the Holocaust didn’t exist and another that says that Europeans were the first ones to settle North America, not the Native Americans.  The article also included information about 9/11 hoaxes on the Internet and false medical information from seemingly credible sights claiming to have cures/remedies.  It also talked about email hoaxes and comic fake websites, like the one sent to the women before 9/11 warning her not to go to the mall or on an airplane during the time of the attacks and website about “clones-r-us”. 

After reading this article, I learned to be more cautious about what I believe on the Internet.  I never would have thought to think, oh maybe this medical website has no idea what it’s talking about because it seemed legitimate.  It also taught me that you can really put whatever you want on the internet, and regardless of it’s accuracy, someone will believe it and take it seriously.  Therefore, I found the article to be very informative and helpful about Internet hoaxes.