I'm not too knowledgable about whois and domains, but is it possible this website is some sort of joke/hoax setup by a random person on the internet? What evidence have we that this is actually associated with the company or with the NSA? The registry says it is associated with a domain that has NSA in the name, and that address has a scary text note, which might mean the NSA is legitimately involved... but maybe not? I'm wondering if it is possible that someone like the conspiratard people could pull something like this off after seeing the news article.
The twitter account has only two tweets, both from within the past 18 hours, so it doesn't appear to be an established account with a reputation of being associated with the company. Maybe it is something they or the NSA tossed up, but i don't know, it seems much more sloppy than I would expect.
But there is a company called fvx research who have five cessnas registered with the FAA. Does that mean the mean the troll set up a website for an already existing company, and if so why didn't they have the website address already in use.
There is also a possibility that the person claiming to have been trolling everyone is a shill trying to throw everyone off the scent.
Edit: I was going to put some info from from the FAA registered planes here but it came out as a jumble after pasting and posting.
good questions, and fair points. more information is needed. I was probably too quick to accept the vice article since it conformed to my preconceptions. (so now I feel silly for doing the same thing I was cautioning against). I didn't mean to imply that I thought the spy planes aren't there or that fvx isn't real, just to express caution in assuming the website and Twitter are actually associated with the company.
yeah I know what you mean, everyone is still trying to put the pieces together and it's best to be cautious, and to be fair I probably would have joined you in assuming it was just a hoax if it hadn't been for the vice piece.
I don't know if you saw any of the ebola stuff last year, I wasn't sure what to think of it. people saying it's a big hoax and they are conditioning everyone with the lime green colour which is all over most ebola videos. if you googled ebola images there was just green everywhere, not so much now, i just tried it but if you google ebola green you'll get the idea of what it was like.
Well anyway, I did like vice, they used to be good with interesting videos, crazy or illegal, it was all good. Then all of a sudden they went on an ebola frenzy, and I thought this is not like vice and the usual stuff they do. Lime green all over the place and guys pulling monkeys apart and eating it, it really seemed out of sorts from the stuff that vice usually gets involved in. Fast forward a little and I found out that Rupert Murdoch had paid $70m for a 5% stake in vice, and not only that but his son James Joined vice's board last November ....exactly around the time vice went ebola crazy. I have never paid much attention to them since, it looks like they are batting for the other team now.
view the rest of the comments →
Mumberthrax ago
I'm not too knowledgable about whois and domains, but is it possible this website is some sort of joke/hoax setup by a random person on the internet? What evidence have we that this is actually associated with the company or with the NSA? The registry says it is associated with a domain that has NSA in the name, and that address has a scary text note, which might mean the NSA is legitimately involved... but maybe not? I'm wondering if it is possible that someone like the conspiratard people could pull something like this off after seeing the news article.
The twitter account has only two tweets, both from within the past 18 hours, so it doesn't appear to be an established account with a reputation of being associated with the company. Maybe it is something they or the NSA tossed up, but i don't know, it seems much more sloppy than I would expect.
Edit: Two days later, and I see this http://motherboard.vice.com/read/the-man-behind-one-of-the-biggest-trollings-of-rconspiracy-ever
So it would appear that it was appropriate to be cautious.
Lightfromdarkness ago
But there is a company called fvx research who have five cessnas registered with the FAA. Does that mean the mean the troll set up a website for an already existing company, and if so why didn't they have the website address already in use.
There is also a possibility that the person claiming to have been trolling everyone is a shill trying to throw everyone off the scent.
Edit: I was going to put some info from from the FAA registered planes here but it came out as a jumble after pasting and posting.
Mumberthrax ago
good questions, and fair points. more information is needed. I was probably too quick to accept the vice article since it conformed to my preconceptions. (so now I feel silly for doing the same thing I was cautioning against). I didn't mean to imply that I thought the spy planes aren't there or that fvx isn't real, just to express caution in assuming the website and Twitter are actually associated with the company.
Lightfromdarkness ago
yeah I know what you mean, everyone is still trying to put the pieces together and it's best to be cautious, and to be fair I probably would have joined you in assuming it was just a hoax if it hadn't been for the vice piece.
I don't know if you saw any of the ebola stuff last year, I wasn't sure what to think of it. people saying it's a big hoax and they are conditioning everyone with the lime green colour which is all over most ebola videos. if you googled ebola images there was just green everywhere, not so much now, i just tried it but if you google ebola green you'll get the idea of what it was like.
Well anyway, I did like vice, they used to be good with interesting videos, crazy or illegal, it was all good. Then all of a sudden they went on an ebola frenzy, and I thought this is not like vice and the usual stuff they do. Lime green all over the place and guys pulling monkeys apart and eating it, it really seemed out of sorts from the stuff that vice usually gets involved in. Fast forward a little and I found out that Rupert Murdoch had paid $70m for a 5% stake in vice, and not only that but his son James Joined vice's board last November ....exactly around the time vice went ebola crazy. I have never paid much attention to them since, it looks like they are batting for the other team now.
http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/sep/04/vice-investment-investment-digital-media