Sockpuppet (Internet)

A sockpuppet is an online identity used for purposes of deception. The term, a reference to the manipulation of a simple hand puppet made from a sock, originally referred to a false identity assumed by a member of an Internet community who spoke to, or about, themselves while pretending to be another person.[1] The term now includes other misleading uses of online identities, such as those created to praise, defend or support a person or organization,[2] to manipulate public opinion,[3] or to circumvent a suspension or ban from a website. A significant difference between the use of a pseudonym[4] and the creation of a sockpuppet is that the sockpuppet poses as an independent third-party unaffiliated with the puppeteer. Many online communities attempt to block sockpuppets.

History

The term "sockpuppet" was used as early as July 9, 1993,[5] but did not become common in USENET groups until 1996. The first Oxford English Dictionary example of the term, defined as "a person whose actions are controlled by another; a minion," is taken from U.S. News and World Report, March 27, 2000.[6]

The history of reviewing one's own work under another name predates the Internet. Walt Whitman and Anthony Burgess both reviewed their books under pseudonyms.[7] Another notable example was Benjamin Franklin.[8]

On October 21, 2013 the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) condemned paid advocacy sockpuppeting on Wikipedia and, on October 23, specifically banned editing by the public relations firm Wiki-PR.[9]

Types

Ballot stuffing

Sockpuppets may be created during an online poll to submit multiple votes in favor of the puppeteer. A related usage is the creation of multiple identities, each supporting the puppeteer's views in an argument, attempting to position the puppeteer as representing majority opinion and sideline opposition voices. In the abstract theory of social networks and reputation systems, this is known as a sybil attack.

A sockpuppet-like use of deceptive fake identities is used in stealth marketing. The stealth marketer creates one or more pseudonymous accounts, each one claiming to be owned by a different enthusiastic supporter of the sponsor's product or book or ideology.[10][11]

Strawman sockpuppet

A strawman sockpuppet is a false flag pseudonym created to make a particular point of view look foolish or unwholesome in order to generate negative sentiment against it. Strawman sockpuppets typically behave in an unintelligent, uninformed, or bigoted manner and advance "straw man" arguments that their puppeteers can easily refute. The intended effect is to discredit more rational arguments made for the same position.[12] Such sockpuppets behave in a similar manner to internet trolls.

Meatpuppet

"Meatpuppet" redirects here. For the band, see Meat Puppets.

The term "meatpuppet" (or "meat puppet") is used as a pejorative description of various online behaviors. The term was in use before the Internet existed, including references in Ursula Le Guin's science fiction story "The Diary of the Rose" (1976),[13] the alternative rock band Meat Puppets, and the cyberpunk novelist William Gibson's Neuromancer (1984).[14] Editors of Wikipedia use the term to label contributions of new community members if suspected of having been recruited by an existing member to support their position.[15] Such a recruited member is considered analogous to a sockpuppet even though he/she is actually a separate individual (i.e. "meat") rather than a fictitious creation. Wired columnist Lore Sjöberg put "meat puppet" first on a satirical list of "common terms used at Wikipedia," defining the term as "a person who disagrees with you."[16]

Nevertheless, other online sources use the term "meatpuppet" to describe sockpuppet behaviors. For example, according to one online encyclopedia, a meat puppet "publishes comments on blogs, wikis and other public venues about some phenomenon or product in order to generate public interest and buzz"—that is, he/she is engaged in behavior more widely known as "astroturfing."[17] A 2006 article in The Chronicle of Higher Education defined a meat puppet as "a peculiar inhabitant of the digital world—a fictional character that passes for a real person online."[18][19]

Legal implications of sockpuppetry in the United States

In 2008, 49-year-old Missouri resident Lori Drew was prosecuted and found guilty by a Federal court jury in connection with the creation of a MySpace account on which she claimed to be a 16-year-old boy named Josh Evans. Drew's goal had been to create a relationship with Megan Meier, a 13-year-old girl who had been in conflict with Drew's daughter. After "Josh" ended the relationship with Megan, Megan committed suicide. Drew was found guilty in connection with misrepresenting her identity in violation of the MySpace terms of service. Although the Los Angeles U.S. Attorney claimed that this conduct was covered by federal computer fraud legislation against "accessing a computer without authorization via interstate commerce,"[20][21] the trial court granted a motion by Drew to throw out the verdict. Drew successfully argued that her use of a false identity did not constitute unauthorized access to MySpace, citing a 1973 breach of contract dispute where a court of appeals ruled that "fraudulently induced consent is consent nonetheless."[22] The prosecution appealed the trial court judge's decision to throw out the guilty verdict, but later dropped its appeal.[23]

In 2010, Raphael Golb was convicted on 30 criminal charges, including identity theft, criminal impersonation, and aggravated harassment, for using multiple sockpuppet accounts to attack and impersonate historians he perceived as rivals of his father, Norman Golb.[24] Golb defended his actions as "satirical hoaxes" protected by free-speech rights. He was disbarred and sentenced to six months in prison but remained free on appeal on $25,000 bail.[25]

Examples of sockpuppetry

Business promotion

In 2007, the CEO of Whole Foods, John Mackey, was discovered to have posted as "Rahodeb" on the Yahoo Finance Message Board, extolling his own company and predicting a dire future for its rival, Wild Oats Markets, while concealing his relationship to both companies. Whole Foods argued that none of Mackey's actions broke the law.[26][27]

During the 2007 trial of Conrad Black, chief executive of Hollinger International, prosecutors alleged that he had posted messages on a Yahoo Finance chat room using the name "nspector", attacking short sellers and blaming them for his company's stock performance. Prosecutors provided evidence of these postings in Black's criminal trial where he was convicted of mail fraud and obstruction. The postings were raised at multiple points in the trial.[26]

Book and film reviews

An Amazon.com computer glitch in 2004 revealed the names of many authors who had written reviews of their books using pseudonyms. John Rechy, who wrote the best-selling 1963 novel City of Night, was one of the more famous authors unmasked in this way, and was shown to have written numerous five-star reviews of his own work.[7] In 2010, historian Orlando Figes was found to have written Amazon reviews under the names "orlando-birkbeck" and "historian", praising his own books and condemning those of fellow historians Rachel Polonsky and Robert Service. The two sued Figes and won monetary damages.[28][29] During a panel in 2012, UK fiction writer Stephen Leather admitted using pseudonyms to praise his own books, claiming that "everyone does it". He spoke of building a "network of characters", some operated by his friends, who discussed his books and had conversations with him directly.[30] The same year, UK crime fiction writer RJ Ellory admitted having used a pseudonymous account name to write a positive review for each of his own novels, and additionally a negative review for two other authors.[31][32]

David Manning was a fictitious film critic, created by a marketing executive working for Sony Corporation to give consistently good reviews for releases from Sony subsidiary Columbia Pictures, which could then be quoted in promotional material.[33]

Blog commentary

American reporter Michael Hiltzik was temporarily suspended from posting to his blog, "The Golden State," on The Los Angeles Times website after he admitted "posting there, as well as on other sites, under false names." He used the pseudonyms to attack conservatives such as Hugh Hewitt and L.A. prosecutor Patrick Frey—who eventually exposed him.[34][35] Hiltzik's blog at the LA Times was the newspaper's first blog. While suspended from blogging, Hiltzik continued to write regularly for the newspaper.

Lee Siegel, a writer for The New Republic magazine, was suspended for defending his articles and blog comments under the user name "Sprezzatura." In one such comment, "Sprezzatura" defended Siegel's bad reviews of Jon Stewart: "Siegel is brave, brilliant and wittier than Stewart will ever be."[36][37]

Government sockpuppetry

As an example of state-sponsored Internet sockpuppetry, in 2011, a Californian company, Ntrepid, was awarded a $2.76 million contract under the auspices of US Central Command for "online persona management" operations[38] to create "fake online personas to influence net conversations and spread US propaganda" in Arabic, Persian, Urdu and Pashto,[38] as part of the programme called Operation Earnest Voice (OEV), which was first developed in Iraq as a weapon of psychological warfare.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Definition of sockpuppet". WordSpy.com.
  2. ↑ Stone, Brad (July 16, 2007). "The Hand That Controls the Sock Puppet Could Get Slapped". New York Times.
  3. ↑ "China Uses an Army of Sockpuppets to Control Public Opinion – and the US Will Too".
  4. ↑ A legitimate pseudonym is sometimes termed an "alt," short for "alternate identity."
  5. ↑ Dana Rollins (July 9, 1993). "Arty/Scotto:". Newsgroup: Groups Google Groups Check |newsgroup= value (help). Usenet: 248375@AUDUCADM.DUC.AUBURN.EDU. Retrieved June 3, 2009. ... one is merely the sock puppet manifestation of the other...
  6. ↑ OED, online edition, June 2011 (accessed August 18, 2011). The reference is to one Jennifer Brand, a 24-year-old student who backed President Clinton in 1996, by calling Gore 'a sock puppet.'
  7. 1 2 Amy Harmon, "Amazon Glitch Unmasks War Of Reviewers," New York Times, February 14, 2004.
  8. ↑ "Name that Ben," PBS.
  9. ↑ "Wikimedia Foundation sends cease and desist letter to WikiPR « Wikimedia blog".
  10. ↑ Sweney, Mark (May 21, 2008). "Should stealth marketing be regulated?". The Guardian (London). Retrieved May 23, 2010.
  11. ↑ "I'd Love This Product Even If I Weren't A Stealth Marketer". The Onion. December 14, 2005.
  12. ↑ Thomler, Craig (April 27, 2011). "Battle of the sockpuppets," Government in the Lab: The Online Magazine for Government and Politics Around the World
  13. ↑ Le Guin, Ursula (1976). "The Diary of the Rose". In Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois. Future Power: A Science Fiction Anthology. Random House. p. 17. ISBN 0-394-49420-2. Retrieved April 30, 2011.
  14. ↑ Nayar, Pramod (2004). Virtual Worlds. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications. p. 123. ISBN 0-7619-3228-3.
  15. ↑ WP:MEAT
  16. ↑ Lore Sjöberg (January 4, 2009). "The Wikipedia FAQK". Wired. Archived from the original on 27 March 2014. Retrieved June 5, 2009.
  17. ↑ "meat puppet Definition: TechEncyclopedia from TechWeb". The Computer Language Company. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
  18. ↑ Read, Brock (October 9, 2006) The Chronicle of Higher Education: The Wired Campus Attack of the 'Meat Puppets'
  19. ↑ Ahrens, Frank (October 7, 2006) Washington Post Emerge as Internet's Effective, and Deceptive, Salesmen Page D01
  20. ↑ Tossell, Ivor (December 4, 2008). "Cyberbullying verdict turns rule-breakers into criminals". Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada: CTVglobemedia).
  21. ↑ "Lori Drew is a meanie". Slate (The Washington Post Company). December 3, 2008.
  22. ↑ Zetter, Kim (December 15, 2008). "Lori Drew Files New Bid for Dismissal on Grounds that MySpace Authorized Access". Wired News (Condé Nast Publishing).
  23. ↑ "Lori Drew cleared of MySpace cyber-bullying". Sydney Morning Herald. July 3, 2009.
  24. ↑ "Dispute Over Dead Sea Scrolls Leads to a Jail Sentence" (November 18, 2010) New York Times
  25. ↑ "NY lawyer gets jail in Dead Sea Scrolls case" (November 18, 2010) AP.
  26. 1 2 BRAD STONE and MATT RICHTEL, "The Hand That Controls the Sock Puppet Could Get Slapped," New York Times, July 16, 2007.
  27. ↑ Martin, Andrew (July 16, 2007). "Whole Foods Executive Used Alias". New York Times.
  28. ↑ Richard Lea and Matthew Taylor "Historian Orlando Figes admits posting Amazon reviews that trashed rivals", The Guardian, April 23, 2010
  29. ↑ "Orlando Figes to pay fake Amazon review damages," BBC, July 16, 2010.
  30. ↑ Jake Kerridge, "Do Consumer Are RJ Ellory's faked reviews the tip of the iceberg?," UK Telegraph, September 4, 2012.
  31. ↑ Hough, Andrew (2 Sep 2012). "RJ Ellory: detected, crime writer who faked his own glowing reviews". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 2012-09-19.
  32. ↑ Streitfeld, David (4 Sep 2012). "His Biggest Fan Was Himself". The New York Times. Retrieved 2012-09-19.
  33. ↑ John Horn. "The Reviewer Who Wasn't There." at the Wayback Machine (archived June 9, 2001) Newsweek web exclusive. June 2, 2001.
  34. ↑ Weiss, Michael (April 21, 2006). "I Spy Your IP". Slate. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
  35. ↑ Howard, Kurtz (April 21, 2006). "Los Angeles Times Yanks Columnist's Blog". The Washington Post. Retrieved 27 July 2012.
  36. ↑ Aspan, Maria (September 4, 2006). "New Republic Suspends an Editor for Attacks on Blog". NY Times. Retrieved June 11, 2007.
  37. ↑ Cox, Ana Marie (December 16, 2006). "Making Mischief on the Web". Time. Retrieved March 30, 2007.
  38. 1 2 Nick Fielding and Ian Cobain, "Revealed: US spy operation that manipulates social media", The Guardian. March 17, 2011. Retrieved March 24, 2011.

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