Internet Sensation: Imposter Claims Responsibility For Global IT Outage

The recently dismissed techie also reached out to X boss and billionaire Elon Musk, appealing for a job. Flibustier delivered a deadpan video confession, laced with a hefty dose of mock self-importance, reminiscent of scenes from ‘The Office’.

“It was my very first day on the job as a new system admin and I was very eager and excited. Let’s say I actually made a small update to a line of code, optimised an update slightly a little bit and maybe I shouldn’t have. I got fired so I was called in,” he explains in the video.

“They called me back today, telling me that I really need to come back. It really wasn’t even to congratulate me. I thought it was as if it was so. Now, I’m just waiting for my termination documentation. They told me that you should never put an update into production without testing, especially not on a Friday, and I said, ‘Well, it’s not Friday; it was Thursday, and today is Friday’,” he further said.

Some initially fell for Flibustier’s elaborate hoax, while others remained skeptical and criticized his performance. However, the truth eventually surfaced: the real cause of the outage was a faulty update released by CrowdStrike, not the antics of an overenthusiastic employee.

As it turns out, Vincent Flibustier is a writer for the Belgian parody news site Nordpresse. In a subsequent video, he revealed the truth behind his staged photo outside the Crowdstrike office – it was AI-generated – and offered insights into the psychology that fueled his viral success. According to Flibustier, people are drawn to narratives that reinforce their pre-existing beliefs.

He explained that he presented a convenient scapegoat – a clueless newcomer proudly displaying his incompetence. The internet, always hungry for something new, eagerly embraced the narrative, even though it lacked truth.

Flibustier also warned against blindly accepting information online and spreading misinformation, especially in an era dominated by generative AI. Ironically, even his own videos were translated using AI.

While the faulty software responsible for the chaos has been reverted, businesses are now contending with the aftermath: canceled flights, missed meetings, and financial losses. The recovery from what’s being termed as the “largest IT outage in history” is anticipated to stretch over several weeks.

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