Debunking the ‘FIFA Corruption’ Twitter account
It’s surprisingly easy to make it look like you knew something you never did.
James Dator has been covering a wide range of sports for SB Nation for over a decade, with a special focus on the NFL.
This series of tweets is making the rounds following Germany’s win in the World Cup final. It’s supposed to try and make you think that FIFA is corrupt and the tournament is rigged. Heck, when you take a quick glance it looks very legitimate and convincing -- especially after an emotionally draining game.
There’s one problem: It’s all fake.
That might be hard to believe. After all, the tweets are time-stamped and you can’t travel back to tweet something in the past, but a simple trick can make it appear like you did.
1. Create a protected account
This part is simple. Sign up for a new Twitter account and lock it so people can’t read your tweets.
2. Tweet every possible outcome you can think of
A user sits behind their protected account and tweets out every possible score, each outcome. Maybe it’s just that Germany will win 1-0, perhaps you go more in depth and list every player scoring. It doesn’t matter that you’re flooding a timeline, no one will see it.
3. Wait for the result and delete your bad tweets
Now it’s all about cleaning up your work to leave a few incriminating tweets. In this case it was easy: Germany will win in extra time, they’ll win 1-0, Goetze will score. Get rid of “Messi will score” and “Argentina will win” and the rest of your bad tweets and you’re set to execute your plan.
4. Make the account public
Suddenly those carefully crafted comments look like prescience. “Whoa... how did they know?! FIFA must be corrupt!” Nope, it’s just one individual with an ax to grind and too much time.
Update:
Ha, someone took a screencap of the account beforehand:
@ChrisVannini @ManVsHandle @FifNdhs yup old screencap pic.twitter.com/QOeHCNd3T8
— M/미타 (@ameyeteaa) July 13, 2014 See More:
