mw731914@ohio.edu
It's a common rule of thumb to remain cautious on the internet because people are not always what they seem, but the internet just took those fears to the next level. Recent findings have shown that astroturfing and paid advertising without disclosure have made the internet more unreliable than it has ever been.
According to an article titled The need to protect the internet from 'astroturfing" grows ever more urgent by George Monbiot, astroturfing is described as the process of using advanced software to override real people on web forums. Fake accounts will blog or post about a certain product or service, making it seem more popular than it really is. There is a long history of tobacco companies making astroturf groups for their own benefit, but now everybody is getting into it. Monbiot stated that a whistleblower contacted him after he wrote an article prior to this one about astroturfing and conveyed some pretty interesting information. The whistleblower claimed that he used to work for a team employed to flood forums and comment threads for their corporate clients, promoting the client and arguing with anybody who was talking negatively about the client. He claimed he wrote under 70 different personas, all who were very different in many ways, making it difficult for the public to catch onto the astroturfing. As if these facts weren't concerning enough, astroturfing software is becoming more and more advanced. Emails gathered by political hackers from a US cyber-security firm called HBGary Federal found that companies now use software that multiplies the efforts of every individual astroturfer, making it even more believable that there is a lot of support for the corporation or governing body that is behind the astroturfing. The software creates personal information such as a name, email address, and social media accounts that look like they've been active for a significant amount of time. Monbiot exclaims that, "software like this has the potential to destroy the internet as a forum for constructive debate. It jeopardizes the notion of online democracy. Comment threads on issues with major commercial implications are already wrecked by what look like armies or organized trolls."
Astroturfing is so popular, even the President is doing it.
False information on the internet like this not only happens under fake names that an internet user does not personally know, but it also can happen when people they do know are getting paid to advocate for a product or service on social media but aren't saying they are getting paid to do so. According to an article titled Now Everyday Instagram Users Face Complaints Over Breaking FTC Ad Rules by Garett Sloane, companies are starting to hire what they call micro-influencers to help promote their products. These can be people with less than a thousand followers on their social media, but people following them will believe them and what the say is a good product or service over what a Kardashian says because they seem more human than a celebrity. Citizens everywhere are outraged that the FTC is being too lenient on their regulatory rules. These ads can really fool someone into thinking their friend likes certain products or services when in reality, they're getting compensation to do so and don't have to state that fact.
Will we ever back away from these ways? Will we ever know what is fake and what is real information on the internet? The answer to these questions is most likely no. The scary thing is, even if most people are aware of these facts, the internet will still continue to be used more and more frequently every single day.
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