AstroTurfing Businesses Not Just a Theory
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2011-02-21 10:38:29 UTC
- Modified: 2011-02-21 10:38:29 UTC
Summary: New links of interest, highlighting a phenomenon to be aware of
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The latest in the long line of revelations from the HBGary Federal email leak, is that HBGary Federal wanted to create software that could make it easy for staffers to create and maintain a massive number of fake online social network personas, allowing them to control virtual armies of totally fake people, whose only mission is to spy on others and spew paid-for propaganda. But, what's even more amazing is that not only did the emails reveal HBGary Federal employees talking about building a platform for letting people more easily manage an army of fake personas, but that the US government put out a request for exactly that kind of software last June, with its request for "Persona Management Software."
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It looks like we should all learn Homer Simpson’s sock-puppet phobia.
If this blog post is accurate, then corporates aren’t just briefing social media teams to “manage” their reputation on services like Twitter. They’re creating armies of software-driven sock-puppets to gang up on bloggers and commenters to swamp negative comment.
The Daily Kos poster is particularly offended that HB Gary, the company that embarrassed itself by taking on “hacktivist” group Anonymous and being hacked in return, would be deploying such tactics against its critics.
The technique is based on creating a kind of meta-manager of online personae, to make sure (as the HB Gary document puts its) that the person hired to massage their employers’ online reputation doesn’t “accidentally cross-contaminate personas during use”.
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