# 613
On or around April 1st, to be exact.
Fake news stories begin to filter through the Internet, ostensibly from legitimate news services, declaring all sorts of unlikely scenarios. Sadly, it is easy to do, and the news aggregator systems often pick up these stories as if they are legitimate.
Already one such story has been picked up, and distributed, something from a blogsite called The Jakarta Post Online. But this isn't the real Jakarta Post, just a parody site. And not a funny one, either.
Yesterday's headline on this blogsite was 'Nuclear Strike Hits Jakarta, Causes Tsunami'. Well, you get the picture.
In today's fake story, an outbreak of bird flu is reported in Maluku and Papua, with hundreds of deaths. The byline is `Reuters', giving it the illusion of legitimacy, and it is written in the style of a real news report.
Just a simple warning, in these times of heightened awareness, that not everything your read on the net is true.
Don't be April fooled.
