astroturfing
Sign in to saveAlso known as Artificial Grass Roots, Fake Grass Roots
Astroturfing is the deceptive practice of hiding the sponsors of an orchestrated message or organization to make it appear as though it originates from, and is supported by, unsolicited grassroots participants. It is a practice intended to give the statements or organizations credibility by withholding information about the source's financial backers.
In the Vinony graph
Vinony's link graph records 690 inbound references to astroturfing, and connects out to The New York Times, lobbying and cancel culture.
It is catalogued under topics including 1985 neologisms, Internet manipulation and propaganda and Lloyd Bentsen.
Vinony links it to 32 Wikipedia language editions.
~43 min read
Encyclopedic overview
24 sectionsContents
- Etymology
- Roles
- Definition
- Policies and enforcement
- Debate
- Effectiveness
- Justification
- Impact on society
- Techniques
- Detection
- Business and adoption
- History of incidents
- Origins
- Pharmaceuticals
- Tobacco
- Internet
- Politics
- Environment and Climate
- Commercial
- Parental Rights Movement
- State-sponsored
- See also
- References
- Further reading
Astroturfing is the deceptive practice of hiding the sponsors of an orchestrated message or organization to make it appear as though it originates from, and is supported by, unsolicited grassroots participants. It is a practice intended to give the statements or organizations credibility by withholding information about the source's financial backers.
The implication behind the use of the term is that instead of a "true" or "natural" grassroots effort behind the activity in question, there is a "fake" or "artificial" appearance of support. It is increasingly recognized as a problem in social media, e-commerce, and politics. Astroturfing can influence public opinion by flooding platforms like political blogs, news sites, and review websites with manipulated content. Some groups accused of astroturfing argue that they are legitimately helping citizen activists to make their voices heard.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “astroturfing” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.