“Web Hoaxes, Counterfeit Sites, and Other Spurious Information on the Internet” By: Paul S. Piper
Piper writes about the proliferation of web sites that misinform the unwary. There are several of these web sites, and they fall into various categories – counterfeit, malicious, product, fictitious, parodies/spoofs/entertainment, hacks, and disinformation. Some are more harmful than others; For example: Clones-R-Us, a parody site that hopes to provoke thought about the ramifications of cloning, is much less malicious than www.whitehouse.com, a site that poses as a link to the website of the White House (which is www.whitehouse.gov), and which directs the user to a pornography site. The author’s final point is to become web/information literate and to remain critical of the things we find on the net.
I’ve never really though about it before, but I realize that I’ve come across many, many of these types of sites in my Internet career. I’ve definitely come across links that take you someplace else than where you want to go. The thing is, I always thought it was a bad link or something. It never occurred to me that I was being manipulated by people who are looking to mislead. At the same time, I think that I can recognize a false site when I see one. I don’t believe I’ve ever had a problem in using information found on the Internet. I found this article fascinating, but I feel like my generation is pretty good at navigating through such sites, though I see his point when it comes students using such sites for school projects. However, I think that may be more due to laziness than anything else.
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