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Trending: The 'Alan MacMasters’ toaster hoax

Factual

The 'Alan MacMasters’ toaster hoax

20/11/2022 GMT

BBC World Service - Trending, The 'Alan MacMasters’ toaster hoax

The anatomy of a Wikipedia hoax about the inventor of the electrical toaster

For more than a decade, a British prankster used Wikipedia to spin a web of fantasy about the inventor of the electric toaster. How did he get away with it?

For more than a decade, he tricked the world into believing a Scottish scientist called Alan MacMasters invented the electric toaster in 1893. At the heart of this web of fantasy was a Wikipedia article that fooled dozens of journalists, public officials, and even primary school teachers. But how did this hoaxer get away with it for so long? And how did an eagle-eyed 15-year-old eventually manage to expose his deception? 

Presenter: Marco Silva
Editor: Flora Carmichael

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