Words that Accidentally Became MLK Jr’s
On May 2, 2011, the founder and head of the Islamist group Al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, passed away. The quote, “I mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy”, perfectly summed up many individuals feelings about Osama bin Laden’s death. Within 24 hours, the quote had gone viral, racking up over 9,000 hits on Google. However, to many of retweeters’ and rebloggers’ surprise, the quotation was inaccurately cited. Teacher and Penn State Graduate, Jessica Dovey’s, words became mistaken for Martin Luther King.
Jessica Dovey originally published a Facebook post with these words as an introduction to a famous passage from Martin Luther King’s book Strength to Love. Eventually, the Facebook post was shared without the quotations. Therefore, the entire passage was mistaken for Dr. King’s work. Eventually, the quotation summarized in order to fit Twitter’s 140 character restriction and what remained were the words of Ms. Dovey cited by MLK Jr. The inaccurately cited quotation captured the attention of Penn Jillette, who retweeted the tweet and initiated the information cascade.
The information cascade became possible for the classical information-based and direct-benefit reasons. A quotation shared by many others would prove useful in deciding your stance on the matter of Osama bin Laden’s death. In fact, it would be easy to believe in this popular information and directly tweet it to show others that you agree with a large portion of the population. The quotation was shared by a person of importance so for direct-benefit reasons, it would prove beneficial to align your interests to this already-popular idea. Aligning your thoughts and options to a more knowledgeable celebrity such as Penn Jillette would be beneficial to enhance your appearance to others even if you do not have a real stance. The spread of ideas through a reputable source such as Penn Jillette further verifies the quotation as words of MLK Jr. because his opinion easily sways the masses and has the ability to start an information cascade.
Original Facebook Post:
I will mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. “Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” MLK Jr.
http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2011/05/anatomy-of-a-fake-quotation/238257/