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High-Tech Rumors Hoax sent via e-mail wounds gun-control group
From: David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>
Date: Mon, 2 May 1994 11:44:59 -0500
PUBLICATION DATE Saturday. April 30, 1994 SECTION NEWS PAGE A06 HEADLINE High-Tech Rumors Hoax sent via e-mail wounds gun-control group BYLINE By Joshua Quittner. STAFF WRITER LENGTH 64 Lines In January, the hoax started to move across the Internet like an electronic flu. It began as an e-mail message that purported to be a top-secret memo from the Washington, D.C.-based organization, Handgun Control Inc. The message detailed a plan to enlist White House officials in an effort to impose onerous licensing fees on gun owners. It went on to suggest that hunting on public lands be outlawed, as well as military paraphernalia. It even called for banning combat boots. The e-mail was passed from one person to another over the Internet, the global web of interconnected computer networks. And then it started showing up on Usenet, the bulletin-board system that can be read by more than 15 million people on the Internet. People started downloading the document, printing it out and faxing it to their members of Congress. It was sent to newspaper and magazine reporters. Now, staff members at Handgun Control say they're spending more and more of each day convincing reporters and other people that though the memo looks real and was distributed on the Internet, it's just a high-tech lie. "I can't tell you how much of my time this has taken up," said Cheryl Brolin, the assistant director of communications at Handgun Control, which was instrumental in getting Congress to pass the Brady Bill, requiring a waiting period for handgun purchases. "People want us to go through it point by point, to refute it. Somehow, the explanation that this is a hoax is not enough." Brolin said that she's gone on five radio talk shows in the past month to talk about the phony memo and that she's getting calls from at least one reporter a day. One way she's convinced people the memo is a lie is by pointing out that the first page of it, which is a cover sheet, includes someone on the internal "distribution list" who is dead. "Everyone is talking about this great Information Highway, but there seems to be little to do to protect yourself against lies and distortion," said Susan Whitmore, director of communications for Handgun Control. "I mean, who's responsible on that thing?" The answer is, no one. Neither the Internet nor Usenet are owned or governed. While much has been written about how the global networks are revolutionizing the way people communicate - putting the power of a mass medium into the hands of everyone - little has been said about its down side. For the first time in history, rumormongers, dirty tricksters and pranksters have immediate access to an international audience of millions. "On the Internet, rumors fly at the speed of light," said Paul Saffo, a researcher at the Institute for the Future, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based think tank. "When the Internet community was small, this kind of situation solved itself because everyone knew to accept anything you read with a grain of salt. Now, the problem is the Internet community has suddenly gotten so large, with all sorts of people who are unable to separate the real from the bogus." The solution, he said, is simple: "Don't leave your common sense behind when you dial into a network. And don't believe everything you read." Rumormongering and Internet pranks have always been a part of Internet culture. Every few months, for instance, an e-mail message circulates, claiming that a new "modem" tax is about to be imposed by federal or state authorities, that would crush free bulletin-board systems. The hand-gun rumor has shown up in several publications. "Someone retrieved from the Information Highway a confidential memorandum from Handgun Control Inc., which spells out its deceptive and devious conspiracy to deprive Americans of their constitutional right to bear arms," a columnist for the Orlando Sentinel, in Florida, wrote last month. After quoting from the memo at length, the column concluded: "If you aren't outraged by this scheme, then you don't understand what America is all about." The columnist couldn't be reached for comment. **END OF STORY REACHED**
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