Sockpuppet (Internet)
- For information on sock puppets in Wikipedia, see Wikipedia:Sock puppetry.
A sockpuppet is an online identity used for purposes of deception within an Internet community. In its earliest usage, a sockpuppet was a false identity through which a member of an Internet community speaks while pretending not to, like a puppeteer manipulating a hand puppet.[1]
In current usage, the perception of the term has been extended beyond second identities of people who already post in a forum to include other uses of misleading online identities. For example, a NY Times article claims that "sock-puppeting" is defined as "the act of creating a fake online identity to praise, defend or create the illusion of support for one’s self, allies or company."[2]
The key difference between a sockpuppet and a regular pseudonym is the pretence that the puppet is a third party who is not affiliated with the puppeteer.
The term was first employed on Usenet in reference to Earl Curley, who had used various pseudonyms to defend his character and arguments and to denigrate his opponents.[citation needed]
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Notable public examples
While examples abound, most are of non-public figures. Notable exceptions in recent years include:
- John Lott, author of More Guns, Less Crime, who, between 2000 and 2003, posted under the "sock puppet" name of "Mary Rosh,"[3] praising Lott's teaching, and arguing with Lott's critics on Usenet. The name was also used to post outstanding reviews of his books, and panning books of rivals on online book sites. Lott admitted he had frequently used the name "Mary Rosh" to defend himself, but claimed the book reviews by "Mary Rosh" were written by his son and wife.
- Lee Siegel, writer for The New Republic magazine, was suspended for defending his articles and blog comments using the user name "Sprezzatura". One such comment, defending Siegel's bad reviews of Jon Stewart: “Siegel is brave, brilliant and wittier than Stewart will ever be.”[4] [5]
- In 2006 a top staffer for then-Congressman Charlie Bass (R-NH) was caught posing as a "concerned" supporter of Bass's opponent Democrat Paul Hodes on several liberal NH blogs, using the pseudonyms "IndieNH" or "IndyNH." "IndyNH" was "concerned" that Democrats might just be wasting their time or money on Hodes, because Bass was unbeatable. [6]
- In 2007, The CEO of Whole Foods, John Mackey, was discovered to have posted on the Yahoo Finance Message Board, extolling his own company and predicting a dire future for their rival Wild Oats Markets while concealing his own relationship to both companies under the screen name "Rahodeb."[7]
Strawman sockpuppet
A strawman sockpuppet is created by a user with one point of view, but acts as though they have an opposing point of view, in order to make that point of view look bad. Such sockpuppets will typically advance foolish straw man arguments which their “opponents” can then easily refute. They often act in an unintelligent, uninformed, or bigoted manner. The effect is to discredit more rational arguments for the same side.
Astroturfing
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.[8]
A single such sockpuppet is a shill; creating large numbers of them to fake a "grass-roots" upswelling of support is known as astroturfing.
Meatpuppet
A meatpuppet is a new Internet community member account, created by another person at the request of a user solely for the purposes of influencing the community on a given issue or issues acting essentially as a puppet of the first user without having independent views and actual or potential contributions. While less overtly deceptive than sockpuppetry, the effect of meatpuppetry and sockpuppetry on the community as a whole may be similar. Brock Read claims that "[t]he “meat puppet” is a peculiar inhabitant of the digital world—a fictional character that passes for a real person online."[9]
This is similar to some practices involved in the real world concept of branch stacking.
See also
References
- ^ definition of sockpuppet. WordSpy.
- ^ Stone, Brad. "The Hand That Controls the Sock Puppet Could Get Slapped", The New York Times, 2007-07-16. Retrieved on 2007-07-16.
- ^ http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A8884-2003Jan31
- ^ Aspan, Maria. "New Republic Suspends an Editor for Attacks on Blog", NY Times, 2006-09-04. Retrieved on 2007-06-11.
- ^ Cox, Ana Marie. "Making Mischief on the Web", Time, 2006-12-16. Retrieved on 2007-03-30.
- ^ Saunders, Anne. "Bass aide resigns after posing as opponent's supporter online", Boston Globe, Associated Press, 2006-09-26. Retrieved on 2007-03-30.
- ^ Stewart, James. "Whole Foods CEO Threatens Merger, Fuels Arbitrage", SmartMoney. Retrieved on 2007-07-17.
- ^ I'd Love This Product Even If I Weren't A Stealth Marketer. The Onion (14 December 2005).
- ^ Read, Brock. (October 9, 2006) The Chronicle of Higher Education: The Wired Campus. Attack of the 'Meat Puppets'. See also, Ahrens, Frank. (October 7, 2006) Washington Post Emerge as Internet's Effective, and Deceptive, Salesmen. Page D01
External links
- Sock puppet entry in the Jargon File