Media heavyweight News Corp has launched a competitor to Buzzfeed and the Internet crowd is having a field day.
Mumbrella reported Rupert Murdoch's corporation quietly launched the viral video site called the Internet Action Force (IAF) at a News Corp NewFront presentation on Friday in New York. The media kit says its mandate is to produce original videos and curate "buzzworthy videos" from around the Internet.
The former digital editor of Conan O'Brien's Team Coco, John DeVore, is leading the charge, so you must assume he knows what he is doing. The site, which went live a month ago, is made up of only video content and is TMZ-brash in font. The majority of videos are low on YouTube views, but some breakouts have hit views in the tens of thousands.
The Murdoch name is normally associated with traditional media titles and has changed direction since late last year, when CEO Robert Thomson referred to viral sites as "strange" and filled with "rubbish."
The IAF website states the "Internet Action Force is the code name for the world’s first rapid-response team of highly trained, socially awkward digital nerds." Unfortunately, the secret code is one that baffled most Twitter folk -- who took to the platform with IAF memes.
Awkward. Nailed.
Internet Action Force is just too perfect. pic.twitter.com/OtdHCh5dqW— Clinton Ducas (@ClintonDucas) May 4, 2015
Leaked photo of one of the editors of News Corps' new viral video website, Internet Action Force. pic.twitter.com/KRhCVewu0J— Jay Ong (@jayong28) May 4, 2015
wait what is internet action force i do not understand or want to pic.twitter.com/sFS4a9U9kE— mat whitehead (@matwhi) May 4, 2015
News Corp's Internet Action Force is essentially Dr. Evil doing the Macarena. #imhip— Ian Desmond (@jaarius) May 4, 2015
Internet Action Force pic.twitter.com/bhuquQ891W— Asher Wolf (@Asher_Wolf) May 4, 2015
Am I alone in looking forward to Internet Action Force? pic.twitter.com/1pwETlFSPz— Tim Beshara (@Tim_Beshara) May 4, 2015
Meanwhile, at the Internet Action Force office. pic.twitter.com/6uwcgSeBwV— James Clark (@_spock) May 4, 2015
@jrhennessy Internet Action Force banner logo .. pic.twitter.com/jbQfGIN1fW— bill walters (@4b5) May 4, 2015
I only have Paint at work, sorry #InternetActionForce pic.twitter.com/B0jj18iou1— Wes Mountain (@therevmountain) May 4, 2015
B E N G H A Z Internet Action Force #makuthink— Paris (@DavidParis) May 4, 2015
Internet Action Force seems like something you would say ironically on a forum in 2002— j.r. hennessy (@jrhennessy) May 4, 2015
Get ready for Internet Action Force #InternetActionForce pic.twitter.com/Lg4MbgJpth— ガングロ (@glengyron) May 4, 2015
There's no other way to describe News Corp's 'Internet Action Force' pic.twitter.com/H1l6Czk0v4— Matt Lennon (@MLenn93) May 4, 2015
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