Luke Allnutt

Spotting social media spoofs

Sep 102012

Satire, social action spin fake news swiftly through social media.

by Luke Allnut

The story sounded almost too good to be true. Valery Gergiev, a conductor known as a strong supporter of the Putin regime, interrupted a performance at London's Covent Garden to speak out in favor of the feminist performance artists Pussy Riot:

"The thing is, yesterday Moscow saw another day of hearings in the fabricated case of Pussy Riot…. I apologize for such a vulgar comparison, but the Russian state is acting like a dominant male in a group of monkeys, compelled to show off his sex organs to make the others fear him." The text of Gergiev’s speech went viral.

But in fact, Gergiev never made the speech

Inside Anonymous

Jun 122012

Media files

Amorphous movement still feeling its way.

by Luke Allnut

To some, unscrupulous rabble-rousers; to others, the Robin Hoods of the Internet. The hacker collective Anonymous defies characterization. Parmy Olson, the London bureau chief for Forbes, has written a new book, We Are Anonymous: Inside the Hacker World of LulzSec, Anonymous, and the Global Cyber Insurgency, which looks in detail at the movement, its schisms, and its evolving tactics. I spoke to Olson by phone about her new book.

RFE/RL:
How would you characterize Anonymous, as they've been described as a movement, a meme, an organization?

Julian Assange gets new TV show

Apr 222012

Features

Wikileaks founder promises controversy, unusual guests.

by Luke Allnutt

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's interview show airs on Kremlin-controlled RT on April 17 and the television station has promised that the first guest will be so controversial it will lead to calls to shut it down.