http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/g ... CMP=twt_gu
The need to protect the internet from 'astroturfing' grows ever more urgent, the tobacco industry does it, the US Air Force clearly wants to ... astroturfing – the use of sophisticated software to drown out real people on web forums – is on the rise. How do we stop it?
Every month more evidence piles up, suggesting that online comment threads and forums are being hijacked by people who aren't what they seem.
The anonymity of the web gives companies and governments golden opportunities to run astroturf operations: fake grassroots campaigns that create the impression that large numbers of people are demanding or opposing particular policies. This deception is most likely to occur where the interests of companies or governments come into conflict with the interests of the public
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The internet is a wonderful gift, but it's also a bonanza for corporate lobbyists, viral marketers and government spin doctors, who can operate in cyberspace without regulation, accountability or fear of detection. So let me repeat the question I've put in previous articles, and which has yet to be satisfactorily answered: what should we do to fight these tactics?
I think this is to some extent the reason there are so many new trolls here on peakoil.com who are vigorously denying peak oil and AGW! I was converted by reading montequest's posts, and having virtually every post I made rebutted for the first few years I was a member here.
How can we defeat this insidious 'Astroturfing' to protect our favorite website? We should create a authentication system, using paper snail mail, to verify that Avatar's represent real people only, and thus limit Avatar's to one per poster. Conversely, does the number of hits on this website increase in proportion to the increasing price of oil?
Anyways, something needs to be done to keep it real here people! Any fake people here please get lost!
