A History of Fake Things on the Internet
From Hoaxes to Deepfakes
Book Edition Details
Summary
In a digital age where the line between reality and illusion blurs, "A History of Fake Things on the Internet" uncovers the fascinating evolution of digital deception. Walter J. Scheirer, a pioneer in computer science, invites readers on a thrilling exploration of how fake news, deepfakes, and digital hoaxes have infiltrated our world. From the primitive manipulations of 19th-century photography to the sophisticated fabrications of AI, Scheirer exposes the technical wizardry and human ingenuity fueling our online realities. This book delves into the minds of the hackers, artists, and tech savants who have shaped—and sometimes warped—our perception of truth. With wit and insight, Scheirer reveals that the real story of digital fakery is less about the technology and more about the age-old human dance of creation and destruction.
Introduction
In the summer of 1992, a shadowy figure calling himself "Quentin" appeared on NBC's Dateline, claiming he could crash the entire internet with a few keystrokes. The demonstration was pure theater, yet millions of viewers believed they were witnessing the birth of a new digital age where reality itself could be manipulated at will. This moment perfectly captures the essence of a remarkable transformation that has unfolded over the past four decades, revealing how our current information crisis didn't emerge overnight with social media, but evolved through decades of technological innovation and human creativity. Long before deepfakes and viral misinformation dominated headlines, a peculiar ecosystem of digital deception was quietly taking root in the earliest corners of the internet. From basement bulletin board systems to primitive web forums, creative individuals were already experimenting with the malleable nature of digital reality, crafting elaborate hoaxes and spinning fictional narratives that would blur the lines between truth and imagination. This fascinating chronicle reveals patterns that help us understand not just how fake content spreads, but why humans seem drawn to creating and consuming it. This exploration will captivate anyone curious about how we arrived at our current moment of digital manipulation, technology professionals seeking to understand the cultural roots of their tools, and readers interested in the hidden histories that shaped our online world. The journey reveals that our current anxieties about digital deception have deep historical roots, and that understanding this past is essential for navigating our digital future with wisdom and discernment.
Underground Genesis: Hacker Culture and Early Digital Manipulation (1980s-1990s)
The foundations of internet deception were laid not by malicious actors or foreign governments, but by a colorful cast of teenage hackers and computer enthusiasts who viewed the emerging digital landscape as an infinite playground for creativity and mischief. During the 1980s and early 1990s, when most Americans had never touched a computer, these digital pioneers were already discovering that information networks could be powerful tools for storytelling, pranks, and social commentary that challenged traditional notions of authority and truth. The hacker underground of this era operated through bulletin board systems, where pseudonymous figures with handles like "The Mentor" and "Erik Bloodaxe" shared not just technical knowledge, but elaborate fictional narratives disguised as real experiences. These "textfiles" became the internet's first viral content, spreading stories of UFO conspiracies, corporate infiltration, and government secrets that blended just enough technical accuracy with outrageous fiction to captivate readers and establish new forms of digital mythology. What made these early digital deceptions so effective was their exploitation of information asymmetry. In an era when few people understood computer technology, hackers could craft elaborate narratives about their capabilities that were impossible to verify. When mainstream media outlets came looking for stories about the "hacker menace," they found communities ready to perform exactly the kind of technological theater that would captivate audiences while simultaneously mocking the very concept of authoritative reporting. This period established enduring patterns that would persist throughout the digital age: the use of technological complexity to obscure truth, the power of compelling narratives to override factual accuracy, and the ability of underground communities to shape mainstream perceptions through strategic performance. These early hackers weren't primarily motivated by malice, but by the intoxicating possibility of transcending physical limitations through technology, inadvertently creating the template for all future forms of digital manipulation and reality alteration.
The Photoshop Revolution: Democratizing Visual Reality Alteration (1990s-2000s)
The release of Adobe Photoshop in 1990 marked a pivotal moment in the democratization of image manipulation, transforming what had once been the exclusive domain of professional darkroom technicians into a tool accessible to anyone with a personal computer. This shift represented more than just technological progress; it fundamentally altered humanity's relationship with visual truth and established the foundation for our current era of widespread digital manipulation. The Knoll brothers, who developed the core algorithms that became Photoshop, initially conceived their software as a tool for enhancing and correcting photographs rather than fabricating entirely new realities. However, users quickly discovered that the same techniques used to adjust brightness or remove dust spots could be employed to seamlessly insert objects, delete inconvenient details, or create entirely fictional scenes. The software's intuitive interface meant that complex manipulations that once required years of darkroom expertise could now be accomplished by amateurs in minutes. As Photoshop evolved throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, it spawned new forms of creative expression and cultural commentary. Websites like Something Awful's "Photoshop Phriday" turned image manipulation into a form of collaborative art, where users would compete to create the most outrageous or clever alterations of photographs. These communities developed their own aesthetics and conventions, establishing visual languages that would later influence meme culture and digital art, proving that the most successful manipulated images weren't trying to fool anyone but rather served as vehicles for humor and social commentary. The true revolution came with the realization that Photoshop had made the concept of photographic truth obsolete. Every digital image became potentially suspect, requiring viewers to develop new forms of visual literacy and critical thinking. This transformation laid the groundwork for our current era of deepfakes and AI-generated content, establishing the principle that in the digital realm, seeing is no longer necessarily believing, and that emotional authenticity often trumps technical authenticity in determining what content resonates with audiences.
Social Media Amplification: Viral Fakery and Algorithmic Distribution (2000s-2010s)
As social media platforms emerged and smartphones put powerful cameras in everyone's pockets, the creation and sharing of manipulated content shifted from specialized communities to the general public, marking the transition from isolated acts of digital creativity to a global phenomenon of "participatory fakery" where millions of users simultaneously created, modified, and redistributed visual content on an unprecedented scale. The rise of platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter coincided with increasingly sophisticated yet user-friendly editing tools, suddenly enabling anyone to apply filters, merge images, or create composite scenes with minimal technical knowledge. More importantly, these platforms' algorithms rewarded engaging content regardless of its authenticity, creating powerful incentives for increasingly outrageous and attention-grabbing posts that prioritized emotional impact over factual accuracy. This era witnessed the emergence of coordinated disinformation campaigns, as political actors recognized the potential of user-generated fake content to influence public opinion and democratic processes. However, the most successful examples weren't sophisticated deepfakes or carefully crafted propaganda, but crude memes that tapped into existing cultural anxieties and tribal identities. The 2016 election cycle demonstrated how amateur content creators could produce material more influential than professional media organizations, revealing the power of authentic emotional resonance over technical sophistication. The period culminated with the development of AI-powered content generation tools and early versions of what would become deepfake technology. Yet even as these tools grew more sophisticated, the most impactful fake content remained decidedly low-tech, teaching us that in the attention economy of social media, emotional authenticity trumped technical authenticity. The lesson was clear: the most powerful fakes were often the most obviously fabricated ones, succeeding not through deception but through their ability to express shared cultural sentiments and tribal affiliations in compelling visual form.
AI-Generated Future: Deep Learning and Synthetic Media Era (2010s-Present)
The arrival of deepfake technology in 2017 seemed to herald a new era of perfect digital deception, where anyone could create convincing videos of public figures saying or doing anything imaginable. Media coverage suggested we were entering an "information apocalypse" where truth itself would become unknowable, yet the reality proved more complex and, in many ways, more mundane than these dire predictions suggested, revealing fundamental insights about how humans actually interact with synthetic media. While deepfake technology did advance rapidly, driven by improvements in artificial intelligence and machine learning, its practical impact remained limited by technical barriers and resource requirements. The most sophisticated fake videos required significant expertise and computational power, keeping them largely confined to academic research and specialized communities. Meanwhile, the fake content actually influencing political discourse remained surprisingly crude, consisting of obviously manipulated memes, recycled conspiracy theories, and amateur hoaxes that succeeded through emotional appeal rather than technical sophistication. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated many of these trends, as lockdowns drove more human interaction into digital spaces while simultaneously creating unprecedented uncertainty and anxiety. Fake content flourished not because it was becoming more believable, but because people were increasingly willing to believe content that confirmed their existing worldviews or provided simple explanations for complex problems, demonstrating that the challenge wasn't technological but psychological and cultural. Perhaps most significantly, this period revealed that the threat of perfect fakes might be less important than the mere possibility of their existence. Politicians and public figures learned to dismiss inconvenient evidence by simply claiming it might be fake, regardless of its actual authenticity. The deepfake era taught us that in information warfare, the weapon isn't necessarily the fake content itself, but the doubt it casts on everything else, fundamentally altering how societies process and evaluate information in ways that extend far beyond the technology's actual capabilities.
Summary
Throughout this four-decade technological evolution, one pattern emerges clearly: the human impulse to create and consume fictional content isn't a bug in our information systems, but a fundamental feature of how we make sense of the world, express creativity, and build shared cultural understanding. From ancient cave paintings to internet memes, humans have always used creative media to explore possibilities, express anxieties, and construct meaning from chaos, revealing that our current information challenges aren't primarily technological problems requiring technological solutions, but cultural phenomena demanding cultural responses. The history of digital fakery demonstrates that the most effective fake content succeeds not because it's technically sophisticated, but because it resonates with existing beliefs, fears, and desires, tapping into deeper currents of human psychology and social identity. This insight suggests that rather than futilely attempting to eliminate all fake content through detection algorithms or platform policies, we should focus on promoting media literacy, supporting quality journalism, and fostering online communities that value truth and constructive dialogue while acknowledging the legitimate role of creative expression and cultural commentary. Moving forward, we need approaches that harness the creative potential of digital manipulation technologies while minimizing their capacity for harm. This means developing educational frameworks that help people distinguish between malicious deception and legitimate creative expression, supporting institutions that can provide authoritative information during crises, and creating social norms that reward thoughtful engagement over viral sensationalism. The goal isn't to return to some imagined golden age of information purity, but to build systems that embrace human creativity while protecting the shared foundations of truth that democratic societies require to function effectively in an increasingly complex digital landscape.
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By Walter Scheirer
