That was my first thought too when I read the WSJ article, but who knows what shenanigans sw engineers can get themselves into

SimpleStacker

SQL treats the first one as true null, but it treats the second as the string 'NULL'.

tech

When your last name is Null, nothing works

Sure, but..... 

DELETE records where username is NULL ;

is not the same as:

DELETE records where username is 'NULL';

SQL treats the first one as true null, but it treats the second as the string 'NULL'.

Or am I taking crazy pills today???