Erratas

Erratas is an internet mystery about an alleged corporate surveillance algorithm that supposedly fires any employee who searches its name. The story began with a November 2015 4chan post about a mislabeled factory tape gun and grew into a web-wide puzzle involving obscure YouTube videos, hidden addresses in auto-captions, and Morse code clues.

Origin

The earliest tagged mention of the word came on November 21, 2015, when the YouTube channel Tod Ellsworth uploaded a KFC Murder Chicks song with the phrase 'Erratas or Rusts' tucked at the end of the description[1]. Four days later, on November 25, 2015, an anonymous user on 4chan's /x/ board relayed a woman's story about her new temp factory job[3]. She said she picked up a tape gun labeled 'Eratas' instead of a normal department name, and a coworker warned her to throw it out and never say the word to a supervisor, because anyone who searched it on a company computer got flagged and fired.

• Platform: 4chan /x/ (YouTube spread)
• Creator: Anonymous 4chan user
• Date: 2015

Overview

Erratas, sometimes spelled 'Eratas' to supposedly dodge detection, is an internet hoax built around a mystery algorithm that will allegedly get any employee fired the moment they search its name at work[2]. The word itself is Latin for 'errors' or 'printing mistakes'[2]. The Erratas mythology blends anonymous 4chan factory stories with obscure YouTube uploads, a Kentucky Bandcamp band called KFC Murder Chicks[1], and Morse code buried inside Jurassic Park tribute videos. Believers treat it as a corporate secret, skeptics call it an alternate reality game or a chain of coincidences.

How It Spread

Less than a month later, on December 19, 2015, another 4chan /x/ poster asked whether anyone had done East Coast IT work between 2000 and 2010 and heard of a shady HR-adjacent program called Erratas, floating UPS as one possible user[3]. The thread jumped to 4chan's /mu/ board in late January 2016 alongside a pitch for a new music genre called 'Deep Internet' built from obscure YouTube snippets.

One linked upload, posted January 23, 2016 by a channel called ChronosForLife JurassicPark and titled 'Youtube is MONITORING and controlling my life,' claimed YouTube's algorithms were targeting the uploader's late mother's Jurassic Park tribute videos[3]. Viewers later spotted that a follow-up 'bait' video's automatic captions spelled out '200 Corbin KY 40219,' the address once listed on the Bandcamp page for KFC Murder Chicks, the same band featured in Tod Ellsworth's earlier upload[1].

How to Use

Erratas is not a template meme, it is passed around as a spooky story and a dare. People typically bring it up when the conversation touches corporate surveillance, YouTube copyright takedowns, or 4chan style alternate reality games, sometimes daring friends to type the word into a search bar at work.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Erratas?

Erratas is an internet hoax about a supposed algorithm that allegedly fires any employee who searches its name at work, wrapped up with claims about corporate mass surveillance[2].

Where did Erratas come from?

The story surfaced in late 2015 through anonymous 4chan posts and a set of obscure YouTube uploads by the Tod Ellsworth channel that included the phrase in a song description[1].

What does Erratas mean?

Erratas is a plural form of the Latin word for 'error' or 'printing mistake,' with the extra 's' making it a little odder than the more common form 'errata'[2].

How do you use Erratas?

Erratas is not a template meme, it circulates as a warning story typically referenced in conversations about corporate surveillance, YouTube copyright takedowns, or 4chan style ARGs[2].

Is Erratas still popular?

Erratas is generally treated as a classic 2015 internet hoax rather than an active investigation today[2].