If you've seen a suspicious looking news story on your Facebook timeline recently, there may be a reason -- a new app is cloning reputable websites and letting people add whatever text they want.
And Clone Zone has already faced controversy, with many naive internet users being fooled by particularly convincing duplicates.
The site can be used to edit almost any webpage, with text, images and links all customisable. The only clue that a link has been tampered with are the words "clone.zone.link" in the share URL -- something many casual readers may fail to notice.
One cloned story went viral, and a convincing duplicate of a New York Times article suggesting that Senator Elizabeth Warren would be endorsing Bernie Sanders was even shared by some official Bernie Sanders groups.
The excitement didn't last. "Man, I hope these papers sue the living daylights out of you," wrote one Facebook user. "Do we not have enough trouble separating fact from fiction without you deliberately enabling more of it?". "I can think of no good use for your service," said another. "Can't you take up gardening or something?".
The fake link was eventually taken down. "After receiving many emails demanding that we remove the Bernie Sanders/Elizabeth Warren article, we were forced to [remove it]", Clone Zone's creators tweeted.
The app was developed by New York-based creative studio 4REAL, though the company has offered no explanation as to why it created Clone Zone. Responding to criticism, 4REAL tweeted that it "does not create articles that go viral on Clone Zone", but "merely" facilitates them.
If you're desperate to fool your friends, you can visit Clone Zone here -- but just be careful next time you retweet a shocking screenshot.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
