Hype: How Scammers, Grifters and Con Artists Are Taking Over the Internet, and Why We’re Following

One shouldn’t believe everything they see on social media, admonishes this scattershot exposé of online deception. Vice journalist Bluestone investigates impresario–con man Billy McFarland’s infamous 2017 Fyre Festival, which was hyped as a glamorous music festival in a Bahamian island paradise but ended up being a rain-soaked gathering at a gravel pit. McFarland had spent millions on parties for himself and on social media personalities who swayed followers to buy tickets to the nonevent, and later pleaded guilty to defrauding his investors. Alongside her reporting on the Fyre debacle, Bluestone explores the economy of influencers who leverage pseudo-relationships with followers into hidden marketing deals with the brands showcased in their feeds, taking potshots along the way at Tesla founder Elon Musk, WeWork founder Adam Neumann, and, inevitably, Donald Trump. Bluestone offers some entertaining case studies of internet frauds, but her theorizing of it all as a symptom of “a post-truth world” feels overblown and the narrative can bog down in repetitive, semi-articulate interviews. (“ ‘That’s one of the best explanations I’ve ever heard,’ gushes one influencer to Bluestone about her question; ‘It makes me laugh, because the way that you—I’ve never heard anyone explain it as well as you did.’ ”) The result is a baggy, rambling tour of internet fakery that itself feels somewhat overhyped. (Apr.)