AOL AKA CIA?

November 7, 2005 1:10 AM

Crap...or covert? It's no secret that America Online, while somehow maintaining a sizable user base, is not exactly well respected or well trusted. But is there in fact more to the company than meets the eye? (Or is this just a bunch of conspiracy theory rantamatazz?) Discuss.
posted by deusdiabolus (16 comments total)

Double agent post.
posted by Rothko at 1:17 AM on November 7, 2005

And both of them crap...
posted by PeterMcDermott at 1:24 AM on November 7, 2005

So, a link to AOL's corporate portal, a circa-2001 "AOL sucks" diatribe, a link to a Google query (??), and a duplicate link—within the same headline—to some tinfoil-hattery right on par with the "moon landing hoax"...

This is a really awful FPP.

By the way, just because I feel the need to defend my old home turf: Dulles, Virginia != Langley, Virginia, chap. More accurately, Langley is a suburb of McLean. Dulles is independent. Here, enjoy this map from AOL in Dulles to CIA headquarters. Does a point 22 miles away really constitute "an offshoot of Langley"?
posted by symphonik at 1:29 AM on November 7, 2005

I didn't see the first post before it was killed, otherwise I wouldn't have posted this one (and yes, I searched for posts with "America Online" beforehand and didn't see the other one). The only reason I put it up was because I wanted to see what kind of dialogues would come out of it (which is pretty much the only reason anybody puts anything up here), and now I'm effectively sorry.
posted by deusdiabolus at 1:35 AM on November 7, 2005

S'ok. Google kind of sucks for searching Metafilter. If you're interested, I used Yahoo, instead.
posted by Rothko at 1:42 AM on November 7, 2005

He lost me when he couldn't decipher a map.
posted by PareidoliaticBoy at 1:56 AM on November 7, 2005

The only reason I put it up was because I wanted to see what kind of dialogues would come out of it (which is pretty much the only reason anybody puts anything up here), and now I'm effectively sorry.

No. Four simple words: Best of the web.
posted by gleuschk at 3:54 AM on November 7, 2005

"This post was deleted for the following reason: crazy bs" (from the one Rothko linked to)

The writing is SO on the wall.
posted by tweak at 4:14 AM on November 7, 2005

And the writers are against the wall. Or so the internet would have us believe.
posted by malusmoriendumest at 4:17 AM on November 7, 2005

Everyone knows that it is Google that controls the universe, not AOL...sheesh..
posted by HuronBob at 4:55 AM on November 7, 2005

symphonik, that's exactly what THEY'D like us to think isn't it? Did the Directorate of Operations hand you those talking points?%^%@13#^$3@#$*^&^NO CARRIER
posted by smcniven at 5:35 AM on November 7, 2005

I liked this story better the first time it was yanked:
"This post was deleted for the following reason: crazy bs"

http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/46438
"America Online (AOL): Made in Langley, VA Of course, just because the beloved internet was begun as an intelligence entity and is still administered by a government agency doesn't mean that it still functions as an intelligence tool. It is worth noting, however, that the company that was primarily responsible for repackaging the internet into a civilian entity, America Online, is perhaps the most thinly veiled intelligence front ever conceived."
posted by jmccorm at 6:19 AM on November 7, 2005

You mean that they went to the trouble to say that AOL is part of the CIA because of it's zipcode, yet they didn't go into the fact that AOL is part of AOLTime-Warner and both AOL and AOLTime-Warner have stylized utchat as their logo?

AOL's logo is far more stylized, and used to be a... pyramid.

I mean really... that site is far more concerned with Jeff Gannon's penis than it is with being a proper conspiracy theory site.
posted by aristan at 6:42 AM on November 7, 2005

I think it is the CIA. They're hoping to find the real truth about the lifestyle of teenage girls.
posted by pardonyou? at 7:18 AM on November 7, 2005

which is pretty much the only reason anybody puts anything up here

No, You're clueless.
posted by puke & cry at 7:25 AM on November 7, 2005 [1 favorite]

WTF? Dulles, VA is really Chantilly, VA and environs. Langley (as in the CIA's Langley) is in McLean, VA. They're quite far from one another.

That LibertyThink article makes my brain hurt.
posted by killdevil at 8:36 AM on November 7, 2005