Is Bitstrips an NSA Trojan?

Is Bitstrips, the cartoon generation app, actually a secret spying tool implemented by the NSA? That’s what one internet rumor claims.

It’s false.

The story originated from a fictitious, humorous website Call The Cops. Let’s take a look at what the article states:

Bitstrips, the fun cartoon generation app growing in popularity on social media, is it turns out a Trojan horse from the NSA to tap your Facebook feed and cell phone. Edward Snowden in his most recent disclosure revealed the origin of the bitstrip program.

According to a statement from Snowden the NSA knew that someday their spying would be made public. They knew that people would respond by demanding more privacy settings. So in response the NSA set up a team to develop apps that will by pass privacy settings, in a legal way.

A graphic has also been spotted circulating. This screenshot shows the Call The Cops article, without citing the source:

Call The Cops

This isn’t our first encounter with Call The Cops. Back in September, another one of their satirical articles was circulated as a real news story. That article claimed that Walmart was to begin offering private EMS services.

Call The Cops’ ”About Us” clearly states that the website’s contents are satirical:

This site is a satire of the current state of Law Enforcement, Fire Fighting and Emergency Medical work. Stories posted here are not real and you should not assume them to have any basis in any real fact. Heck we tend to leave in spelling and grammer errors just to prove we is not the professional media.

Bottom Line

Bitstrips is not a trojan created by the NSA. The article from which this claim originated is humorous in nature.

Source

Bitstrips App is Secretly NSA Trojan Horse to Access Your Private Data (RJ Beam, Call The Cops: November 9, 2013)