Paul Boutin, senior editor of Wired, said the error is likely to have a profound effect on how the Internet is perceived.

“Will we ever fully trust the Web again?” Boutin asked. “We may well be witnessing the dawn of a new era of skepticism in which we no longer accept everything we read online at face value. But regardless of what the future holds, one thing is clear: The Internet’s status as the world’s definitive repository of incontrovertible fact has been jeopardized.”