Internet Hoax Articles Considered Harmful

[Tim May]

On Sunday, October 7, 2001, at 10:43 PM, Declan McCullagh wrote:

> Hint: This isn't the style AP uses.
>
> The biggest problem would-be hoaxers have is crafting articles in the
> appropriate style -- very, very few can pull it off.



Monday October 8 2:16 AM ET

Ridge Warns on Internet Hoax Articles

By Winston Blair, Associated Press Writer

PHILADELPHIA, Pennyslvania (AP) - Homeland Defense Secretary Tom Ridge 
said Sunday that the U.S. faces a serious and expanding threat from 
fraudulent Internet articles, or hoaxes.

``These articles often sway the gullible,'' he told a press conference 
in Philadelphia. ``It cannot be permitted. The freedom of speech we 
enshrine in our Constitution is not the freedom to speak frivolously in 
times of war. There are no free speech advocates in foxholes.''

Ridge stressed that the U.S moves to limit false news articles will be 
done with input from civil liberties groups, saying the moves are 
``against info-terrorists, info-terrorism, their sanctuaries and their 
supporters.''