In Response to the Piper reading

There is no doubt that Internet disinformation is becoming a big problem in today's web-based world. Piper has provided a great resource for distinguishing honest websites from hoaxes and counterfeit sites. I find the very idea of sites like martinlutherking.org appalling and distasteful. A big problem I have noticed is the general ignorance of the way sites are formed and maintained, once a person is informed it is so much easier to distinguish the bad sites from the good sites. Luckily there are sites like register.com that can help people on their search for accurate information.

While these false sites do cause a lot of problems for people they are also a great source of fun and entertainment. There are a lot of very funny sites created in collaboration with different forums meant for entertainment. One of the great things about the Internet is how easily it can transform if you know how to use it. April Fool’s Day on the Internet is so much fun! Almost every major forum puts up false homepages or false stories. Of course, a lot of people may be unaware of this kind of Internet culture which is dangerous in terms of what they then believe to be true. A great example of this is the year-round website for Onion News. Onion News is solely dedicated to providing false news in a convincing and entertaining way. Recently a lot of actual news sites (CNN, ABC, NBC, etc.) have been citing stories from the Onion unaware that it is a hoax website and almost always completely false. Perhaps they should read Piper's fine assessment of such "Web Hoaxes, Counterfeit Sites, and Other Spurious Information on the Internet."