Astroturfing is essentially a business or company masking the supporters of a movement and making it appear as though the supporters are real supporters, but are usually fake supporters being paid or the actual business itself. It is an extremely harmful and deceptive method used by large companies that pushes their own agendas without regard for the effects of their actions. The act of astroturfing is something that can be very difficult to monitor or stop. With the internet, it is super easy to hide your identity or pay others discretely to do the work.
One of most recent examples of Astroturfing in the world today is discussed in an article by The Washington Post. Astroturfing by companies and automated bots that post comments in regards to different political stances and ideas in an attempt to sway ideas and actions in between election years. These automated bots have become increasingly difficult to manage and detect. One of the huge downfalls of this specific situation is that democracy is its truest form is being disrupted and altered. With thousands, even millions, of fake posts and comments flooding the internet in regards to politicians and their ideas, it makes it nearly impossible to filter our who is actually stating their ideas and who is a paid bot.
Another unusual, but true example of astroturfing came from McDonald's in Japan back when the Quarter Pounder burger was released. According to JapanToday, McDonald's hired roughly 1,000 people (including some of their own employees) to stand in line at a specific branch of the restaurant as a way to draw people's interest in to the new sandwich. In a way, I don't think this is the most harmful form of Astroturfing, but it still is a form of it and still deceptive.
Jamie, the bots that were all over social media during election season is a great example of astroturfing. Some of these bots were easy to spot, but others were tough to identify. I'm sure both parties benefited somewhat from the deployment of them.
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