JURY FINDS ‘CRAIGSLIST KILLER’ LIED, ON THE INTERNET

April 2 2009

Eden Prairie, MI – Craigslist is one the oldest and most successful of internet businesses. Like most online businesses the site began life as a small independent project but as the web grew, so did the site. With over 30 million people visiting the site every month looking to advertise, looking to buy, or looking for that special
someone, Craigslist has firmly cemented itself as a major fixture in the online community. Occasionally though the site draws people who have less than honest intentions, something the site has fought hard to change but has so far been largely unsuccessful.

Such is the case of 20-year old Michael John Anderson who was recently found guilty of the murder of 24-year old Katherine Olson. Olson was killed after responding to a fake babysitting ad placed by Anderson who apparently intended merely to rape the woman. Unfortunately for both the pistol that he pointed at Olson during their meeting fired and killed her instantly. Now Anderson faces life in prison after being found guilty of first-degree murder and of lying, on the internet.

“There is this perception that people on the internet are who they say they are and that their intentions are exactly as they state but more and more we are finding that is not the case. Whether they are rapists, child molesters, murderers, or just scam artists there is an increasing number of people who are using the internet to lie,” said Scrape TV Technology analyst Ken Kevins. “People understand the strange man in the trench coat, or the funny guy who just
keeps staring, but things change when they go online. It’s very difficult to see shiftiness in people’s eyes over the internet and that causes a lot of people to just go along willingly with whatever is being said. As we have seen here that attitude needs to change and people need to realize that even people you meet online will lie to you.”

Increasingly Craigslist has come under scrutiny for a number of events that showcased the lies being spread around the web. One such case brought national attention when Radio news host George Weber was stabbed to death after trying to meet up with an underage teen he had met through the site.

“The Weber case sent shockwaves through the web community because of the salacious nature of the incident. It highlighted the increasingly difficult task of determining a person’s intentions through written communication. Simply put, if the teen had said ‘when you come to my place I’m going to duct tape your hands and feet and stab you 50 times’ there’s a good chance he wouldn’t have gone and would be alive today,” continued Kevins. “It’s situations like this that really bring the question of online honesty into question and extends far beyond sites like Craigslist and things like meeting up with strangers. This calls into question things such as message board postings, MySpace accounts, emails from people promising thousands of dollars for very little effort, and just about everything that is said about celebrities and politicians. We could be looking at a wholesale revolution in the way people think about communicating on the internet.”

Experts decline to make estimates about the number of lies that have been spread across the internet since it came into widespread use in 1996 but some predict it will be into the high hundreds if not thousands.  

“Because there are millions upon millions of communications everyday online it’s very difficult to estimate how many of them are truthful and how many of them are lies. We would also have to account for people who have stretched the truth or just omitted certain facts relevant to the discussion which in many instances can amount to a lie,” continued Kevins. I have a very strong feeling that this ‘Craigslist Killer’ is just the start of a whole mountain of revelations about
truthfulness on the internet. People shouldn’t go around mistrusting everything they read on the internet, but try to look at it critically because someone may be lying to you.”

Reportedly Craigslist is toying with the idea of making users sign a truth clause before posting on their site. Other sites such as MySpace have reportedly closed the accounts of a number of users who have falsely asserted facts about themselves.

“There are enough lies real life, the last thing we need is people lying on the internet as well.”

Martin Philton, Technology Correspondent 

NEWS > TECHNOLOGY > JURY FINDS ‘CRAIGSLIST KILLER’ LIED, ON THE INTERNET