To understand astroturfing you must first understand what exactly it is. According to The Guardian, astroturfing is the attempt to create an impression of widespread grassroots support for a policy, individual, or product, where little such support exists. Next question I asked myself is why would people do this? What is the point?
Astroturfing is something that has been going on for decades, however, now that it is online it's easy to access and thus spread false information. To aid in spreading false information there is software that has been created and used to create fake IP addresses for virtual astroturfers. These astroturfers then each create many accounts that then are able to post on sites that support their political views or for corporate gain.
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| Picture source: www.rakacreative.com |
The reason for doing such a thing is money driven. There are companies that hire people to fake product reviews. There are people hired to post and blog about views that companies or political parties want you to believe. Based on the fact that if there are so many people voicing the same approval with something, it must be true, right? Ads that redirect you to another website for advertising purposes are also misleading. All of these can create revenue for companies. Politically, a group of people promoting a particular president based on untruths can change an election. This can all be manipulated via internet using astroturfing and how can you tell? To an untrained person like me, I can't. At best I can use my best judgement. I can consider where the information is coming from, but it is surprising how easily we as consumers can be manipulated to think a certain way. This was shown during COVID-19.
Many people posted about how the virus wasn't real, the government is trying to control us, if you believe in COVID you're a follower and wearing a mask isn't necessary because it's just the flu. Now you read about how getting the COVID vaccination is bad. The government is testing us, weeding out the weak. The doctor made the vaccine so quickly, we don't even know what is in it and what it will do to us. This kind of astroturfing has lead many consumers, including me, to find it hard to believe any information I get. It's so hard to tell who is earnest and who is out to control, manipulate and make money off of the public's fear. Now that I am aware of this practice I will definitely pay more attention to what is being "sold" to me in the future.
Chrissy,
ReplyDeleteI could not agree more with your concerns. I am making it a point to check information from other outlets to verify the content. I have even been looking at opposing views to get all sides of a story.
Debra