Astroturfing

Astroturfing is the deceptive practice of hiding the sponsors of an orchestrated message or organization (e.g., political, economic, advertising, religious, or public relations) to make it appear as though it originates from, and is supported by, unsolicited grassroots participants. It is a practice intended to give the statements or organizations credibility by withholding information about the source's financial backers.

The implication behind the use of the term is that instead of a "true" or "natural" grassroots effort behind the activity in question, there is a "fake" or "artificial" appearance of support. It is increasingly recognized as a problem in social media, e-commerce, and politics. Astroturfing can influence public opinion by flooding platforms like political blogs, news sites, and review websites with manipulated content. Some groups accused of astroturfing argue that they are legitimately helping citizen activists to make their voices heard.

Many countries have laws prohibiting some astroturfing practices with various methods of enforcement. In the US, the FTC has set rules against endorsing a product without disclosing that you are paid to do so.^[1] In the EU, social networking sites may be governed by the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive which also prohibits undisclosed paid endorsements and connected individuals from misleading readers into thinking they are regular consumers.^[2]

Various detection methods have been developed by researchers, including content analysis, linguistic analysis, authorship attribution, and machine learning.^[3]