The copypasta conundrum

“There is a danger of the internet becoming loud and ugly… with a thousand voices screaming for attention …” – Matt Drudge

Recently, a veteran actor filed a cybercrime case against a content creator who posted a fabricated story about him. In the said post, the content creator apparently claimed that the actor committed some rude acts when they met inside a grocery store and even took some merchandise without paying for them. This post irked the actor and he confronted the content creator who then claimed it was just a joke in the form of a copypasta. Unfortunately for the content creator, the actor felt that the explanation was both insincere and insufficient and decided to file the case.

A copypasta is a block of text copied and pasted to the internet and social media. It usually contains controversial ideas or rants and posted for humorous purposes and provokes reactions from those unaware that the text is a meme. This block of text usually comes in the form of a story where names and places are changed and then posted online as memes. Some copypasta texts are meaningless and used to annoy people in comment sections. Some copypasta seek to spread certain ideas and even manipulate public opinion.

In this particular case, the copypasta was apparently derived from a now popular meme called the Flying Lotus meme post. Flying Lotus is an American record producer. The copypasta tells of a famous person acting rudely in a grocery store with some additions depending on the story. The original copypasta started with the line, “I saw Flying Lotus in a grocery store”. It has been recycled many times with the name Flying Lotus replaced with names of celebrities such as Ryan Gosling and Roger Federer, to name a few. In this instance, the name of the veteran Filipino actor was used to replace the name of Flying Lotus.

In general, people here have rallied behind the actor stating that the meme went too far and could damage the reputation of the said actor if the actor did not take steps to clear his name. The content creator in question, on the other hand, stated that he thought it was a harmless meme. There are even some netizens, both here and abroad, that defend the use of such copypasta and say that these types of copypasta are just mere pranks and harmless jokes. Then, there is this growing tribe of lonely, narcissistic nonsense posters (they are called differently online but I can’t use the term here) who engage in their own brand of humor and contrarian attitudes who thrive in situations where people are agitated. They have come out blasting the veteran actor for overreacting, being thin-skinned and someone who cannot take a joke.

There is no question that the veteran actor did the right thing in filing a case. Clearly, the copypasta in question crossed the line. Not everybody knows about copypasta and the large amount of gullible people online will surely be unaware that the post was done in humor, if that was truly the case. This incident, however, should serve as a wake - up call on the possible power of copypasta. People or groups can actually post seemingly true and sensational fake posts about people or groups and entice people to share it online or even in group chats. There are content creators who are smart enough to weaponize copypasta and there are many people who will not only accept them as truth but people who knowingly share fake stories because of the need for attention. The conundrum lies now in how to balance online freedom and controlling the dangers thereof.

This is my oblique observation.

Editor’s note: The opinions expressed in the foregoing article are solely the author’s and do not reflect the opinions and beliefs of the Philippine News Agency (PNA) or any other office under the Presidential Communications Office.