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Difference between revisions of "Astroturfing (Global)"
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| authorinstitution =Alumna, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, UK and College of Humanities and Social Sciences, George Mason University, USA | | authorinstitution =Alumna, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, UK and College of Humanities and Social Sciences, George Mason University, USA | ||
| authorwebsite =[https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anna_Bailey Anna Bailey's profile page at ResearchGate], [https://communication.gmu.edu/people/ssamoyle Sergei Samoilenko's profile page at GMU]}} | | authorwebsite =[https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anna_Bailey Anna Bailey's profile page at ResearchGate], [https://communication.gmu.edu/people/ssamoyle Sergei Samoilenko's profile page at GMU]}} | ||
<big>'''By Anna Bailey | <big>'''By Anna Bailey, Alumna, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, University College London, UK and Sergei Samoilenko, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, George Mason University, USA'''</big> | ||
[[Category:Market]] | [[Category:Market]] | ||
[[Category: Functional ambivalence]] | [[Category: Functional ambivalence]] | ||
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Political campaigns in the future will be progressively threatened by online astroturfing in the form of social bots and other imposters posing as autonomous individuals on the internet, with the intent of promoting a specific agenda. As astroturfing technology develops it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish fake personas from real individuals (Bienkov 2012<ref>Bienkov, A. 2012. ‘Astroturfing: What is it and why does it matter?’, Theguardian.com, 8 February, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/feb/08/what-is-astroturfing</ref>), which poses a threat to open democratic debate as well as the utility of crowdsourcing platforms such as consumer review websites. There is a very real danger, in both politics and business, that participants will be forced to spend money on astroturfing just to remain competitive with their rivals. In game theory terminology astroturfing is thus a form of non-optimal behaviour known as a ‘prisoner’s dilemma’, since money is sunk on rival disinformation which effectively cancels out both sides. It also represents a ‘social loss’ (Simmons 2011: 187-8<ref>Simmons, R. T. 2011. Beyond Politics. The Roots of Government Failure (Oakland, California: The Independent Institute)</ref>), as resources are spent on ‘non-productive’ uses rather than those which generate wealth or add value. | Political campaigns in the future will be progressively threatened by online astroturfing in the form of social bots and other imposters posing as autonomous individuals on the internet, with the intent of promoting a specific agenda. As astroturfing technology develops it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish fake personas from real individuals (Bienkov 2012<ref>Bienkov, A. 2012. ‘Astroturfing: What is it and why does it matter?’, Theguardian.com, 8 February, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/feb/08/what-is-astroturfing</ref>), which poses a threat to open democratic debate as well as the utility of crowdsourcing platforms such as consumer review websites. There is a very real danger, in both politics and business, that participants will be forced to spend money on astroturfing just to remain competitive with their rivals. In game theory terminology astroturfing is thus a form of non-optimal behaviour known as a ‘prisoner’s dilemma’, since money is sunk on rival disinformation which effectively cancels out both sides. It also represents a ‘social loss’ (Simmons 2011: 187-8<ref>Simmons, R. T. 2011. Beyond Politics. The Roots of Government Failure (Oakland, California: The Independent Institute)</ref>), as resources are spent on ‘non-productive’ uses rather than those which generate wealth or add value. | ||
==References | ==References== | ||
# Elder, M. 2012. ‘Hacked emails allege Russian youth group Nashi paying bloggers’, Theguardian.com, 7 February, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/feb/07/hacked-emails-nashi-putin-bloggers | # Elder, M. 2012. ‘Hacked emails allege Russian youth group Nashi paying bloggers’, Theguardian.com, 7 February, http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/feb/07/hacked-emails-nashi-putin-bloggers | ||
# Kte'pi, B. 2014. ‘Deception in political social media’, in K. Harvey (Ed.), Encyclopedia of social media and politics, Vol. 4, pp. 357-359. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications | # Kte'pi, B. 2014. ‘Deception in political social media’, in K. Harvey (Ed.), Encyclopedia of social media and politics, Vol. 4, pp. 357-359. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications | ||
# Snowdon, C. 2014. The Sock Doctrine. What can be done about state-funded political activism?, IEA Discussion Paper No. 53. London: Institute of Economic Affairs | # Snowdon, C. 2014. The Sock Doctrine. What can be done about state-funded political activism?, IEA Discussion Paper No. 53. London: Institute of Economic Affairs | ||