• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, June 13, 2011

While it has always been an experiment in controlled chaos, sometimes the Internet seems like it is really spinning out of control. Last week was one such occasion, as social media dominated the headlines in a variety of unexpected (and often unpleasant) ways.  Taken together, these stories paint a portrait of the way social media is transforming everyday life, for good or ill.

The week got off to a roaring start with Weiner-gate, as fresh photos of the embattled, frequently nude congressman were released to the press by conservative provocateur Andrew Breitbart; Weiner-gate was also there for the wrap-up, with even more revealing photos taken by the congressman in the Congressional gym. All the photos had been sent to female acquaintances on the Internet as part of Weiner's "Infidelity Lite" approach to extramarital shenanigans; of course the infamous crotch shot that started it all was posted to Twitter, in a moment of mind-boggling hubris and stupidity.

As humiliating as the whole sensational story has become, Weiner's early attempts to misdirect the press and public were also illuminating, in their way, by pandering to our perceptions of the Internet in general and social media in particular. The press was relatively slow to pounce on Weiner because (while Occam's Razor dictated otherwise) it wasn't totally implausible that someone may have "hacked" Weiner's Twitter account to sabotage his political career with an errant crotch shot. Only with the presentation of additional proof, including photos with his face shown -- also compiled via social media -- was Weiner revealed to be a classic example of the species "male politician."

Indeed, hacking is much in the air nowadays, as Sony continues to struggle with the fallout from a high-profile security breach which paralyzed its PlayStation Network, and new hacker attacks jeopardize customer privacy across the Internet. In the latest reports, it was revealed that hackers penetrated Citibank's customer database almost a month ago, gaining access to 200,000 or about 1% of its current 21 million North American credit card customer records. Like Sony, Citibank has weathered criticism for withholding the damaging news from customers for weeks before going public about the breach. Google said some Gmail accounts, including email used by high-ranking White House officials, had apparently been penetrated by hackers based in China. Last but not least, the International Monetary Fund revealed that it, too, had been the victim of a major security breach "earlier this year."

From hacks we turn to hoaxes, which run the gamut from kind of clever to just plain dumb. On the somewhat more clever side, a blogger who was supposedly a gay Syrian woman named Amina Abdullah in Damascus was revealed to be an American man named Tom MacMaster in Edinburgh, Scotland. Although MacMaster was apparently trying to help the cause of Syrian protestors, his blog posts about Syrian government brutality may end up backfiring, by providing evidence for the regime's far-fetched assertion that such reports are all "lies fabricated by the foreign media."

On the dumb side, a photo circulated on the Internet showing a sign taped to the door of a McDonald's which claimed that the national fast food chain was now charging a $1.20 "tax" on African-American consumers. The fact that this got any traction is amazing in itself: one look at the text of the note showed it to be a ridiculous fabrication. True, the Denny's class action lawsuits showed there can indeed by systematic racial discrimination in national chain restaurants, so I guess the basic idea isn't totally implausible -- but c'mon, a note attached to the front door?