Time of San Diego recently interviewed the man responsible for a slew of Internet hoaxes. Hailing from Brazil, the prankster revealed that he never starts the pranks himself, but provides a platform for his visitors to.
If you’re familiar with sites like Prank.link, feednewz.com and fakeshare.com, then you’re probably familiar with how they work.
They allow visitors to produce fake headlines and share them on social media. When visitors click the fake headlines, they are taken to a message saying that they have “been trolled” and that the story was not real. See the screenshot below.
Now, you’d think that because there is no fake story, just a headline, and visitors are told they have been duped as soon as they click the link, that these sites wouldn’t generate viral hoaxes. But they still do.
In fact these prank websites demonstrated how easy it is to spark a viral rumour, in that you don’t actually need to write a fake story. These prank websites have highlighted that many social media users will simply see a headline and share it without even clicking through.
Popular hoaxes that these prank sites started include the claim that rapper Tupac has come out of hiding, the claim that an Ebola outbreak was detected in the United States and a slew of celebrity death hoaxes.
Whilst many of the prank headlines are just harmless fun, some have sparked controversy. Headlines titled “Bubonic Plague outbreak spreads in Illinois” have the potential to cause much panic and alarm.
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The full interview was conditioned on anonymity, and it was published on MyNewsLA.com. It can be read below –
Times of San Diego: Have you had any contacts with Facebook about these sites? Has Facebook warned you or tried to shut your sites down?
The founder: Not really. I think that if you have in mind that the links are actually jokes, they are a good thing for Facebook. People surf on Internet looking for entertainment, and Facebook is a source of it as we are.
What is monthly traffic on these sites — unique users and page views?
It depends on the links that are getting shared. It can go up to a couple of millions in a month.
Ashley Madison was hacked, causing great grief to millions of users. Is your site protected against hacking — and exposure of your users?
We don’t have user information stored.
Why is the domain name prank.link registered in Scottsdale, Arizona, USA — and not Brazil?
It is cheaper [in America]. I use a Brasilian reseller.
Have users been banned for breaking Terms of Service? If so, how many, and what were their offenses?
We have done different. We delete or change the jokes that have being denounced. Almost a thousand jokes have been deleted since we stared. We don’t have user accounts yet.
How many other sites of this nature (posting hoax deaths, etc.,) are you aware of?
Around 10.
How much do you make from your sites — monthly or yearly?
We are getting enough to have a team of three working for the website.
How do you respond to critics who question your sites’ ethics or morality?
We do not create any jokes/pranks on the site. They are all created by the users and aimed to the users. So the jokes mirror what people think in media. Also, the most clicked jokes are the ones with more appealing subjects among Internet users.
So, for me, the website reflects what is being media this days: Bad news. People create jokes about good and bad things. But the Bad-news jokes are the majority and receive more clicks. So people are interested in it — bad news. Like the ones about people dying or disasters. The same phenomena we see in newspapers.
What do you say to celebrities who accuse you of causing potential emotional distress to fans, friends or family?
People create the jokes. We advise the users, but it is impossible to prevent that some abuse is going to be made. So when we get the abuse reports, we analyze the jokes and delete or change them depending on the problem.
If any one thinks a joke should be removed, it’s all about reporting it on our site. (In fact, a James Earl Jones “death” note was removed when a representative of the actor contacted the site to complain.)
We have created an integrated report abuse system so people can flag the bad jokes. We have also create an analysis system, where we can manually check every joke created, to minimize abuses. This one should be fully functional in the next weeks.
How long do you expect to continue operating these prank sites?
We are thinking of new projects. At least until we get a new successful case.
What national or international laws have you been accused of violating, if any?
We work hard trying to avoid bad use of our system. I guess we are not violating any law as we don’t create or share the jokes and we act to remove the bad content.
What sites do you admire most — of any style or subject?
I like Youtube. I like crowdfunding sites. I use it for donations. I hope someday our team can start a website that helps people donate to charity.
