On Tuesday, Wikileaks, the famous whistleblower website, claimed responsibility for publishing a hoax New York Times article in the op-ed section of its online publication under the name of the news paper's former executive editor Bill Keller.
The article titled ""Wikileaks, a Post Postscript," argued that the website, which was responsible for leaking a number of U.S. security secretes regarding the war in Iraq, was protected under the First Amendment of the American Constitution.
The former NYT editor took to the social media and immediately and tweeted "THERE IS A FAKE OP-ED GOING AROUND UNDER MY NAME, ABOUT WIKILEAKS.EMPHASIS ON "FAKE. "AS IN, NOT MINE. - Bill Keller," (@nytkeller)
After the hoax was revealed, the website released a statement on twitter:
"Yes. We admit it. WikiLeaks (Assange & co) and our great supporters where behind the successful NYTimes banking blockade hoax on @nytkeller," as on @wikileaks (Twitter profile handle).
In another tweet, the whistleblower website said "What is not a hoax, is that WikiLeaks is under illegal economic censorship by US financial institutions and NYTimes says nothing. The rats. - WikiLeaks," on their Twitter profile.
The article appeared on a webpage that looked exactly like the New York Times op-ed page with the same web design and typograph. The Times website storify.com explained that "The page is designed just like a New York Times page, but you'll notice that the URL is wrong...The word 'opinion' precedes the 'nytimes.com'-the real URL for NYT is nytimes.com/pages/opinion...Many phishing websites use words, preceding the 'official' URL as a way to spoof websites and mislead people. The fake website was incredibly intricate and well done, which helped the op-ed spread quickly," as posted on storyfy.com
Currently, Wikileaks co-founder Julian Assange is fighting his extradition charges from London to Sweden where he faces charges of rape and sexual molestation. He is seeking asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy. He has been in the Ecuadorian custody since June 19.
