Astroturfing - on line.

[empip]

yep, I thought that a strange title.

...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...

A few around here seem to relish in marshalling their disciples into a particular stance from time to time - practising or honing their skills ?

There was a prolific political poster 'Notting' here before the last election.

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"...the illusion of consensus..."

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