A press statement and "study" released online Friday claiming lower IQ test scores for Internet Explorer users was a deliberate attempt to trick journalists into publishing bogus information. The data reported by AptiQuant was distributed by major news sites around the world, including this one.
As the BBC reported early Wednesday, however, investigators discovered that the content hosted online by AptiQuant -- which claimed to be a psychometric consulting company -- was actually lifted from a number of other legitimate web sites. For example, the thumbnail images of the firm's researchers were lifted from the official site of French research company Central Test, the BBC reported.
The prankster has since admitting having "pasted most of the material from 'Central Test' and got lazy to even change the pictures." The perpetrator also listed eight telltale signs "that should have uncovered the hoax in less than five minutes, [including the fact that] the domain was registered on July 14, 2011," and the test mentioned in the report "is a copyrighted test and cannot be administered online."
Wide Distribution
Over the weekend, the hoax gained worldwide traction as major media outlets gleefully ran with the scam's principal theme. Examples include Forbes ("Internet Explorer Users Are Stupid"), the International Business Times ("Internet Explorer Users Not so Clever: Study"), NPR ("Study Suggests Internet Explorer Users Are, Um, Kind Of Slow") and PC World ("Just How Stupid are Internet Explorer Users?").
Using the name Leonard Howard, the prankster responded to an e-mail from this reporter sent Friday questioning the validity of the study's findings. When I pointed out that business users often have no browser choice and asked whether the "study" had taken this into account, he replied, "No."
"The people who took the test could either be using their home computers or office computers," the prankster wrote in an e-mail.
In a later posting at the AptiQuant web site picked up by other journalists, Howard claimed his "firm" was being threatened with legal action by Internet Explorer users. "A win in a court would only give a stamp of approval and more credibility to our report," Howard wrote. However, it remains to be seen whether Microsoft deems the hoax an amusing episode or a liable action.
An Anti-Microsoft Bias
AptiQuant's original statement contended that Microsoft thwarted innovation in the past by adopting technologies in older IE versions that don't comply with web standards, which suggests the prankster might be a disgruntled web-page designer or app developer. "This trend not only makes their job tougher, but has also pulled back innovation by at least a decade," the bogus AptiQuant statement read.
As our article pointed out on Friday, Microsoft has long since moved to adopt web standards and is actively encouraging IE6 users to upgrade to a modern browser. Still, the anti-Microsoft bias of the so-called "research" was a red flag that should have alerted journalists that something was not on the level.
The individual behind this hoax has demonstrated that you don't have to launch a distributed-denial-of-service attack to wreak havoc on the Internet. The good news is that journalists will be more careful before accepting at face value whatever appears in press statements released by organizations lacking an established standing.
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