Apples stock hit by Web rumor

This article astounds me. It just goes to show you how gullable some people are. Sometimes, I really do believe people demand freedom of speech for the freedom of thought they rarely use. Obviously, in Apple's case, people seemed to have believed the first blog they read, claiming Steve Jobs had a heart attack and was rushed to the hospital. The blog, which was posted on iReport.com (a user-generated site supported by CNN.com), most-likely caused Apple's drastic stock the day of its posting.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/10/03/technology/apple/index.htm

This article also goes to show how news travels fast. The stock fell 10% in 10 minutes after the blog was posted.

Overall, I thought this web article did a nice job of being transparent and non-biased, as it voices peoples' positive and negative opinions regarding the accuracy of certain aspects of the internet. I disagree with Jarvis' quote in the article becuase I do think blogs and their like will create larger future problems for journalists especially.

I'm shocked to read that the blog's poster isn't facing any legal ramifications. The user who posted this rumor on their blog had their iReport.com account disabled, and that was the end of it. In my opinion, the more we see new technologies like blogs and web 2.0 be integrated into websites, the more we're going to see incidences like this happen. Actually, with the capabilities and control people on the web have today, I'm surprised we don't see more of this - or maybe this is happening more and more but just ins't being reported!

On the flip side, I think we will see more government agencies cracking down on the internet - especially security and libel concerns - in the future. In Apple's case, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission got involved.

This is a great example of a situation where everyone in this class would be able to apply themselves and not be fooled. Remember, always be pesimistic of anything you read on the internet. When in doubt, remember the following: