Struggling to Squelch an Internet Rumor

The internet has revolutionized the way information is passed, making mass communication possible with the click of a mouse. And yet, such power left unchecked can ease the spread of misinformation. Samuel Freedman, Columbia University journalism professor, cites an example at the University of Kentucky, in which confusion over an e-mail suffix from the UK, led to thousands of e-mails forwarding the false rumor that the university had canceled a Holocaust course due to pressure from Muslim groups. The school’s president, Lee T. Todd Jr., puts the role of the internet in perspective, remarking on the positive power of free-information exchange across the “somewhat arbitrary borders of geography or nation state” as well as the harsh reality of “an unfounded rumor that flows across a world seemingly without check.” Indeed, this dual quality makes the application of these freedoms so important and, in this instance, troubling, with the internet used to reinforce disingenuous religious cleavages and degrade an institution of higher education. The school has taken numerous steps to correct the rumor, but the e-mail chain continues. Often subversive in nature, internet rumors can play on peoples’ fears and create crises of public opinion. – YaleGlobal