Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft Twitter Bots, FTC Blowback, and Paid-for Vista 7 Glorification

Clara the cat



Summary: Automated accounts serve a function as Windows pushers; FTC under attack from companies that produce AstroTurf contracts; Microsoft-sponsored sites and former employees engineer a fanfare for Vista 7

SOME weeks ago we produced evidence to show that Microsoft bribes people who mention Vista 7 in Twitter (and elsewhere). It seems like a violation of the new rules from the FTC, but on it carries in addition to previous examples, such as:

  1. More Microsoft AstroTurfing (aka 'Technical Evangelism') in Twitter
  2. User “Microsoft Incentives” Wants to be Your Friend, Too
  3. Microsoft's Twitter AstroTurf Continues
  4. Who is Pumping MSFT and Pimping Microsoft in Twitter?
  5. Microsoft Hires Federated Media for Twitter AstroTurfing
  6. Does Microsoft Still Create Twitter Accounts for Guerilla Marketing?
  7. Microsoft's AstroTurfing, Twitter, Waggener Edstrom, and Jonathan Zuck


Someone suspects that Microsoft operates bots in Twitter -- ones whose purpose is marketing alone.

Today we are going to look at the Twitter account HashWindows who, presumably is a bot which RT’s posts containing keywords relevant to the topic it RT’s…no surprises here…Windows!

Before we look at how robotic or automated this account really is, let me just say that I have not yet established if Hashwindows is an official Microsoft account (one of many) and nobody seems to know. It lists its location as Pearl, but has no contact details or means of tracing its origins, sounds like one of the MS Faithful so far eh?

I first noticed Hashwindows a few months ago in my replies section of Twitter, I thought it was quite funny how it would RT my comments (some of which hardly made favorable reading) As time went on I lost interest in what I considered was a Twitter spam bot and dismissed it as a badly coded piece of work that blinded spouted RT’s of Windows related subjects (a little like the MS faithful do Steve Ballmers comments)


Microsoft should be careful here, regardless of who is responsible for this bot. The FTC ought to be watching this as meanwhile we find that companies which employ AstroTurfers see it as their constitutional right to deceive the public in exactly this way.

An interesting development has occurred in the story of the controversial FTC guidelines for sponsored blogging/social media. The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has called upon the FTC to rescind the blogger rules, and has questioned the constitutionality of them. As you may know, there have been a lot people calling them an infringement on free speech.

The IAB says the rules unfairly and unconstitutionally impose penalties on online media for practices in which offline media have engaged for decades. In an open letter to FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz, Randall Rothenberg, the President and CEO of the IAB, called the FTC’s distinction between offline media and online media, "constitutionally dubious."


How can such people even justify what they do? Microsoft too employs such unethical agencies which help hide the truth about Vista 7. True voices are not pleased with this operating system and margins become an issue for Windows.

A Microsoft-sponsored Seattle blog claims "positive reviews for Windows 7" (how many of them from Windows enthusiasts, MSDN folks, and bribed authors/bloggers who got a preview?), but it also exposes a known issue.

Despite positive reviews for Windows 7, the upgrade process for the millions of people still using the older Windows XP won't be simple. Unlike the shift from the newer Windows Vista, the move from Windows XP to Windows 7 requires a clean installation -- which means backing up data before installing Windows 7, then restoring data and reinstalling applications after the new OS is on the machine.


The same blog has also just published a "fluff piece" that includes quotes from familiar Microsoft shill (and former Microsoft employee/evangelist) Gartnenberg. It's more advertising for Vista 7 disguised as an article. There will be a lot more of it as Microsoft's bad financial results are approaching (to be immediately eclipsed by the Vista 7 marketing blitz).

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

New XBox Leaks Probably Serve to Confirm XBox's Collapse (Many More Layoffs)
It's very much consistent with what many other sites have reported lately
 
Qualcomm, the New Owner of Arduino, Blasted for Its Software Patents Tax on 'Smartphones'
A lot of Qualcomm's patents are on software. We wrote about this in prior years.
XBox Layoffs Rumours, Downtime, and Criticism From XBox Co-Founder
"everyone is ditching the xbox."
Links 10/10/2025: Honoring The Legacy Of Robert Murray-Smith, Many Articles on the Hey Hi (AI) Bubble
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: October Gothic and Reading Middle Earth Role Playing; C and Ada
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 09, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 09, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Farewell to Jane Goodall, California Bans Algorithmic Price-Fixing
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Lost Wages and a Saga Of Continuing To Use Palm PDAs
Links for the day
Richard Stallman's Talk in Helsinki is Done. Tomorrow Göteborg.
There are scarce details in Finnish about Dr. Stallman's talk
The Slop Song
The train wreck marches on
LLM Slop/Advanced Plagiarism Flooding the Zone With Capital That Does Not Exist
Many publishers out there still participate in this bubble instead of calling it what it is
Links 09/10/2025: Sacked Microsoft Workers Make "Sackbird", IBM Taps CockroachDB for PostgreSQL
Links for the day
"Happy Hacking Day" Richard Stallman Talk This Afternoon (From 14:00 to 16:00) at Haaga-Helia University in Pasila
Richard Stallman in Helsinki, Finland
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 08, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 08, 2025
Links 09/10/2025: Impact of Microsoft Layoffs, More Data Breaches
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/10/2025: Autumn Blues and C IRC Bot
Links for the day
Slopwatch Appreciated by Real Authors of GNU/Linux Articles
We do try to keep on top of those things
Upgraded R.R.R.R.R.R. Today
The Web of 2025 is full of garbage, not limited to slopfarms
Freedom From Proprietary Prisons
Forking always an option
IBM's Watson Died in 1956, Now Watson Dies Again
IBM is becoming just a reseller of GAFAM and other stuff
Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, UbuntuPIT, and Google News
We've also just noticed more slop from UbuntuPIT
Microsoft Says That Constant Mass Layoffs Are Success, the Media Isn't Buying This Microsoft Narrative Anymore
If people in the media feel an obligation to repeat whatever lies Microsoft tells, what point will there be to the media?
Links 08/10/2025: "Mali Puts Free Speech on Trial" And Apple Enforces Dictatorship
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: ‘Death to Spotify’ and Law to Ban Loud Commercials on Streaming (Dis)Services
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: Real Innovation and Nina.chat is Dead
Links for the day
Links 08/10/2025: Y2K38 Bug is a Vulnerability, Chat Control in Europe a Threat
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows is No Longer an Operating System, It's Surveillance Project
Why is this even legal to preload on PCs outside the US?
How and Why Once-Legitimate Sites Turn Into Slopfarms
Many sites will go offline and many social control networks will shut down once they realise or even openly admit they spend money and time gardening a bunch of bots and slop
UbuntuPIT Became a Slopfarm and Gnoppix Tarnishes Its Own Brand With Slop
It fits all the characteristics of mildly-edited (if at all) slop
Slopwatch: Linux Journal and Other Slopfarms
GAFAM needs to go the way of the dodo
Gemini Links 08/10/2025: "Seek Seek Revolution" and Gradient Backgrounds
Links for the day
Qualcomm Arduino Takes Aim at Raspberry Pi
Qualcomm is a Microsoft partner
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, October 07, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, October 07, 2025
Stagnation of the Economy and What Free Software Can (or Could) Do For It
If your economic model is based on a pyramid of lies, it won't last very long
Social Control Media is Sinking
it would rightly seem like the era of centralised "social" sites (they're not social, they're about controlling the users) is ending, not overnight but gradually