Internet "Astroturfing"

Skillers FTW · Feb 24, 2011

George Monbiot said:

Every month more evidence piles up, suggesting that online comment threads and forums are being hijacked by people who aren't what they seem.

The anonymity of the web gives companies and governments golden opportunities to run astroturf operations: fake grassroots campaigns that create the impression that large numbers of people are demanding or opposing particular policies. This deception is most likely to occur where the interests of companies or governments come into conflict with the interests of the public. For example, there's a long history of tobacco companies creating astroturf groups to fight attempts to regulate them.

After I wrote about online astroturfing in December, I was contacted by a whistleblower. He was part of a commercial team employed to infest internet forums and comment threads on behalf of corporate clients, promoting their causes and arguing with anyone who opposed them.

Like the other members of the team, he posed as a disinterested member of the public. Or, to be more accurate, as a crowd of disinterested members of the public: he used 70 personas, both to avoid detection and to create the impression there was widespread support for his pro-corporate arguments. I'll reveal more about what he told me when I've finished the investigation I'm working on.
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/environme...23/need-to-protect-internet-from-astroturfing

Do we have spies among us?
This reinforces my belief in not trusting internet users as I would others IRL.

kill dank · Feb 24, 2011

Everyone that says to buy gold from Sythe instead of gold4rs is a spy.

JohnK · Feb 28, 2011

Interesting, not surprised with the power of the internet these days. Of course you don't trust any random guy on the internet, you can never be too sure.

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