Satirist: Choke Telecom
By Techgirl

Indian funny man Cyrus Broacha studied at the Lee Strassburg Acting Studio in New York but chose comedy over theatre. He joined MTV in 1996 and soon developed a cult following.  In the past, he has performed live for a number of Techies at sites like Technopark.  These days Cyrus Broacha is CNN IBN’s comedy king hosting the popular show ‘The Week That Wasn’t’.

How would you react if Cyrus came on his show and said he was not happy with the Airtel service at all, and all of us should protest by using up all of Airtel’s bandwidth for one hour on a particular day? 

You would probably laugh and dismiss it for what it is – a clever comedian surfing popular anger against most of our Telecom companies.

An American satirist who did the same now finds himself in hot water.

US technology journalist Dan Lyons who also writes America’s most popular satire blog Fake Steve Jobs (based on the real Steve Jobs of Apple computers) told the readers of his satire blog to protest against telecom major AT&T.  Bill Gates was quoted as saying he reads the satire blog.

“
Monday, December 14, 2009

Operation Chokehold

I’ll tell you something — I’m really blown away by the way people have responded to AT&T’s bastardly behavior over bandwidth usage. Our engineers are friggin livid. And, because they’re engineers, which means they’re basically evil little pricks, they’ve come up with a plan to teach AT&T a lesson. They’re calling it Operation Chokehold. Last night I got this email that they’ve been sending around inside Apple, encouraging people to join the crusade:

Subject: Operation Chokehold

On Friday, December 18, at noon Pacific Time, we will attempt to overwhelm the AT&T data network and bring it to its knees. The goal is to have every iPhone user (or as many as we can) turn on a data intensive app and run that app for one solid hour. Send the message to AT&T that we are sick of their substandard network and sick of their abusive comments. The idea is we’ll create a digital flash mob. We’re calling it in Operation Chokehold. Join us and speak truth to power!
“

But it seems that some people have a problem differentiating between satire and reality.  Even though ‘Operation Chokehold’ was announced on a satire blog by a nationally renowned satirist, many Americans took him seriously.

Some Americans, unhappy with Telecom major AT&T, took upon themselves to organize Facebook Groups to organize Operation Chokehold.

The US Government’s Federal Communications Commission issued the following statement to the American media: “Threats of this nature are serious and we caution the public to use common sense and good judgment when accessing the Internet from their commercial mobile devices," Jamie Barnett, chief of FCC's public safety and homeland security bureau, said in a statement. "To purposely try to disrupt or negatively impact a network with ill-intent is irresponsible and presents a significant public safety concern. “

Powerful American tech/human interest blogs like Mashable pontificated: “We don’t really buy it. Even though the blog in question is satirical in nature, Lyons had to know that the fake persona’s impassioned viewpoint, reach, and influence would hit a nerve with readers and inspire action. Of course, as the post suggests, given the massive attention that the original piece received, it’s really too late to call off the operation entirely.”

‘Fake Steve Jobs’ is so obviously satirical that it has never been sued by anyone. If you logon to fakesteve.net, it has a cartoon image of the real Steve Jobs levitating on a suspicious cloud of smoke. Despite being made a constant target of his mocking,  Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has supported satirist Dan Lyons.

In a world of reality shows, have we lost our sense of humour?

P.S:  Fake Steve Jobs gave his first Indian interview to Techgoss which you can see at this link.

Techgoss note:  Techgirl is a senior Tech journalist who reports on the IT, KPO and KPO Sectors for a leading media house.  In her spare time, she dabbles in satire in her blog http://techgirltalk.blogspot.com