No, we are not getting a Waffle House or Culver's Restaurant

A screenshot of the fake proposed Waffle House. It should be noted that this location is not even in Pilesgrove, but in Woodstown. According to local sources, it is fake.

PILESGROVE — Over the weekend, residents of Woodstown and Pilesgrove may have been alarmed or intrigued to read recurring claims from an anonymous Facebook account that a Waffle House would be built where the old Acme once stood in Woodstown on Route 40, and a Culver's Restaurant would be built on not-yet-developed land adjacent to the Pilesgrove Shopping Center.

Admins of the Facebook groups where these rumors began circulating removed the poorly drawn development sketches (which appear to have been made in Microsoft Paint, and incorrectly identified the former Acme location as Pilesgrove). And while most people were smart enough to recognize a fake account, it begged the question: Is there any truth to the rumors?

No. It's fake.

Saturday evening, just to be sure, I reached out to a source connected with the Pilesgrove Planning Board and they confirmed they've received no notice of development, nor has the planning board reviewed any developments concerning a Culver's Restaurant.

The Waffle House would be in Woodstown territory despite the graphic claiming the old Acme being in Pilesgrove — but if one is untrue, it's safe to bet the other is too. 

I cannot confirm if this was the case, but often times organizations called "Troll Farms" or "Troll Factories" will create fake Facebook (or other social media) profiles, infiltrate local community groups, and purposely cause chaos. When the arguments are sparked, whoever is controlling the account will harvest the data of the people arguing, confirming who among them are actual residents of that community. Then, the operator of the fake account will sell that data to tech companies for huge sums of money. Those companies will ceaselessly advertise to those residents, create trend analysis of those residents, and attempt to influence their elections. 

Russia and China will often weaponize troll farms to conduct information and psychological operations against their populations. Think of it as the Orwellian "Big Brother," except that Big Brother isn't just watching — it's collecting and subliminally controlling.

Apart from population control, why do the operators of these accounts harvest and sell the data? Likely because, in recent years, data has eclipsed oil as the most valuable resource on Earth. A 2017 report in The Economist confirms the shift.

Now, I'm not trying to scare anyone. It's just the truth of the times in which we're living. Best to stay vigilant online, my friends. Click here for a helpful resource on the history of troll farms. Click here for a refresher on how to secure and protect your personal and family's online data.

Luckily, Woodstown and Pilesgrove residents weren't fooled.

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Want to share your Woodstown-Pilesgrove news in the Crier Column? Email Jim Cook at WoodstownCrier@gmail.com