While the internet experienced significant disruption due to a global technical collapse, and flights were grounded as companies scrambled to manage the situation, one man, Vincent Flipiste, emerged to claim responsibility for the chaos and became the number one target for the angry. What’s the story?
Flipiste claimed to be an employee at CrowdStrike, igniting the internet with an AI-modified image of himself outside the company's office with the caption: "First day at CrowdStrike, made a simple update and took an evening break." The photo spread rapidly within minutes, garnering about 400,000 likes and being shared by over 36,000 users.
Two hours later, Flipiste posted another update announcing that the company had fired him. He also shared a short video in which he acknowledged being responsible for the global outage and became known to many as the "screen killer" whose blunders turned screens blue.
Flipiste also modified his biography on "X" to fit the joke, stating: "Former employee at CrowdStrike, wrongfully terminated, made one line of code change to improve performance. Looking for a job as a systems manager."
While he tried to be humorous, thousands online believed the sarcasm was serious and thought he was responsible for the "blue screen of death" appearing on their systems. Airlines, banks, television channels, and many other industries were suffering from the issue, as people sought the "culprit" on social media.
While some users praised him for guaranteeing them a day off on Friday, others posted abusive messages about him. In reality, Vincent is a satirical writer managing the Nordpresse website, a Belgian parody news site. He appeared as a guest on French television and stated: "People are drawn to stories that confirm their preconceived beliefs."
He explained why people quickly responded to his prank, saying: "No culprit had been named, and I presented one on a silver platter; people love to have a villain. The villain seems completely stupid, boasting about his stupidity, taking a break on his first day at work. This falls into a huge commotion where people need new information, and the fake by nature is new, you won't read it anywhere else."
He also mentioned that the post was shared by those who knew it was just a joke, but its viral spread took it to a point where people took every word of the tweet seriously.
Millions of users worldwide are still facing issues, while both Microsoft and CrowdStrike strive to resolve the problem as swiftly as possible. The latest version of CrowdStrike's Falcon Sensor aimed to secure their clients' systems against breaches by updating the threats it defends against. However, a faulty code in the update files led to one of the largest technical disruptions in recent years for companies using Microsoft's Windows operating system.
The problems emerged rapidly after the update was released on Friday, with users posting images on social media of computers displaying blue screens with error messages, known in the industry as "blue screens of death."
