High-Tech Rumors Hoax sent via e-mail wounds gun-control group

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

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.


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