The Positives Of Astroturfing, And Why it's Not Really That Positive.

Jess Deyo 
jd922016@ohio.edu 

For a teenage girl like myself, I grew up learning about social media. Once advertisements started popping up on popular platforms like Instagram, I started noticing people who literally spent their time commenting positive statements, and dismissing negative responses. After looking at most of the accounts belonging to these people, I noticed that, for the most part, these didn’t seem like real people. It wasn’t until recently that I learned that there was a name for this behavior: astroturfing.

According to The Guardian, Astroturfing is an attempt to create an impression that a policy, individual or product is widely supported. I’m sure that all of us can instantly think of an example of astroturfing because it is all around us. My question, though, is when do we draw the line?

I’ve always thought that astroturfing was wrong and unfair, but after I read that the Air Force was doing it, I wondered if it could have benefits. In another article by The Guardian, the motives of the US Air Force are explained.

Photo Courtesy of Cliff Owen, AP

In an attempt to counter violent extremists and potential threats outside of the US, the Air Force has developed several false personas, known as “sock puppets,” to be active on foreign blogging activities. In order to keep the personas protected, these fake identities have convincing backgrounds and histories, as well as 50 US controllers.

While many may disagree, I believe that this has several good and bad consequences. For example, the more insight we have on foreign conflict, the better; in the end, we have to protect our country and I appreciate the effort. However, if an entity as powerful as the US Air Force is participating in widely questionable behavior, other companies and businesses may also feel entitled to do the same.

These effects are hard to miss, just look at these 10 fake grassroots campaigns. Here, we can see all of the negativity that comes from the influence of larger sources, like the USAF, amongst many. One of the best examples was the Toronto Mayor, who used fake twitter accounts to push his policies. This act of dishonesty is usually somewhat transparent, and is likely a contributor to several other politicians doing the same.

One of the most common grassroots campaigns I have seen is for makeup products. All over the internet are fake accounts spending all of their time making sure that customers know how incredible a certain product is. All I can seem to think is, do we really want to be getting publicity that way?

At the end of the day, I can see both sides of astroturfing, and I suppose that’s why we are stuck at the crossroads of what is right and wrong, and how to regulate it. If I had a say, I would potentially argue that astroturfing should be permitted only for purposes like that of the USAF. But either way, no matter who it is for, it’s unethical and could lead to a multitude of problems.