Serdar Argic () was the alias used in one of the first automated
newsgroup spam incidents on
Usenet
Usenet (), a portmanteau of User's Network, is a worldwide distributed discussion system available on computers. It was developed from the general-purpose UUCP, Unix-to-Unix Copy (UUCP) dial-up network architecture. Tom Truscott and Jim Elli ...
, with the objective of
denying the Armenian genocide.
Usenet posts
For a period of several months in the first half of 1994, the Internet user under the pseudonym of "Serdar Argic" (with "sera" Usenet ID) posted messages in any Usenet
newsgroup
A Usenet newsgroup is a repository usually within the Usenet system for messages posted from users in different locations using the Internet. They are not only discussion groups or conversations, but also a repository to publish articles, start ...
thread involving the country of
Turkey
Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...
, arguing that the
Armenian genocide
The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily t ...
had not occurred or that
Armenians
Armenians (, ) are an ethnic group indigenous to the Armenian highlands of West Asia.Robert Hewsen, Hewsen, Robert H. "The Geography of Armenia" in ''The Armenian People From Ancient to Modern Times Volume I: The Dynastic Periods: From Antiq ...
had committed
genocide
Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...
against Turks. Describing him in ''
Net.wars'',
Wendy Grossman said:
Serdar Argic, who apparently managed to run a daily search on all of Usenet for mentions of Turkey, and followed up all such messages with lengthy and historically inaccurate diatribes about genocide against the Turks.
Argic's postings soon numbered in the tens of thousands, and averaged over 100 posts per day, the highest post count of any single Usenet entity at the time. He posted to several newsgroups, especially soc.history, soc.culture.Turkish, and misc.headlines. Because of the posting volume, repetitiveness and minimal responsiveness to follow-up posts, most observers concluded that it was the output of a program, or "
bot
Bot or BOT may refer to:
Sciences
Computing and technology
* Chatbot, a computer program that converses in natural language
* Internet bot, a software application that runs automated tasks (scripts) over the Internet
**Spambot, an internet bot ...
", which scanned for any new appearances of the keywords "Turkey" or "Armenia" in certain newsgroups and replied with saved pages of political text. The bot would automatically post a reply even if the original message had simply mentioned a
Thanksgiving turkey
The centerpiece of contemporary Thanksgiving Thanksgiving (United States), in the United States and Thanksgiving (Canada), Canada is Thanksgiving dinner, a large meal generally centered on a large roasted turkey as food, turkey. Thanksgiving is ...
but was cross-posted to a soc.* group. The posts sometimes contained direct responses to specific statements, indicating some human intervention.
Response
Internet users sent complaints to
UUNET
UUNET Technologies, Inc., formerly UUNET Communications Services, was an American commercial Internet service provider. Founded in 1987, it was one of the first and largest commercial ISPs and one of the early Tier 1 networks. It was based in ...
, the Internet service provider hosting the account of Serdar Argic. UUNET never took any action based on the complaints, since Serdar Argic was posting from a host downstream from the host they fed (anatolia!zuma) over which they had no control. Serdar Argic became known as the Zumabot due to the name of his host.
Usenet messages can be cancelled, which prevents their further propagation. However, at the time, there was a fear of the free use of third-party cancellations, as it was felt they could set a precedent for the cancellation of posts by anyone simply disagreeing with the messages. Cancellations were rarely performed at the time, because spam was not the problem it became in subsequent years.
The Serdar Argic posts stopped in April 1994, after UUNET cancelled the subscription of anatolia.
Popular culture
Ken MacLeod
Kenneth Macrae MacLeod (born 2 August 1954) is a Scottish science fiction writer. His novels ''The Sky Road'' and '' The Night Sessions'' won the BSFA Award. MacLeod's novels have been nominated for the Arthur C. Clarke, Hugo, Nebula, Locus ...
referred to Argic in his novel ''
The Star Fraction'' as a
slang
A slang is a vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in everyday conversation but avoided in formal writing and speech. It also often refers to the language exclusively used by the members of pa ...
term for "the lowest layer of paranoid drivel that infested the Cable, spun out by degenerate, bug-ridden, knee-jerk auto-post programs.
Kill-file clutter." In his novel ''
Accelerando'',
Charles Stross describes one character as "a kind of Serdar Argic of intellectual property."
See also
*
List of spammers
This is a list of individuals and organizations noteworthy for engaging in bulk electronic spamming, either on their own behalf or on behalf of others. It is not a list of all spammersonly those whose actions have attracted substantial independent ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Argic, Serdar
Usenet spammers
Deniers of the Armenian genocide
1990s in Internet culture