It’s bad enough that the internet is filled year-round with fake content and AI slop, teasing cars that will never see production or pushing renderings of machines we wish existed but never will. Scroll any feed long enough and the line between real and fake starts to blur, even for people who know better.
Then every year, April 1 rolls around, and whatever guardrails were left tend to disappear entirely. Suddenly, everything is suspect, from obvious joke posts to things that look just real enough to make you pause, click, and second-guess.
Most of the time, it is harmless. Sometimes it is even clever when it is clearly labeled and actually funny. Too often it is neither. The line between a joke and something that wastes people’s time, erodes trust, or creates real-world consequences is crossed far more often than it should, especially when the source holds any authority or credibility…