From the ‘IRA video’ to Dick Cheney’s baboon, it’s getting easier than ever to lie in cyberspace – and harder to spot the truth
In the second part of Jon Ronson’s series about the struggle for control of the internet, he looks at online astroturfing – when unpopular institutions post fake blogs to seem more favourable. He meets the former vice president of corporate communications for US healthcare company Cigna, who confirms his involvement in this kind of activity
On BBC Radio 5’s Outriders, Andrew Gregson outlines the unethical social web and why it is important to take a closer look at how people use the web for darker reasons.
Transparency and ethics have been always the matter of concern by public but in fact meant nothing to some businesses and their representative agencies. Organisations usually use the terms ‘ethics’ and ‘transparency’ as buzz words to manipulate governments and public. It is not fair, at all, or is it?…
Online games and social media websites are being used to target junk foods at children and even recruit them for promotion, health campaigners claim.
The mysterious identity of a young Arab lesbian blogger who was apparently kidnapped last week in Syria has been revealed conclusively to be a hoax. The blogs were written not by a gay girl in Damascus, but a middle-aged American man based in Scotland.
The Globe and Mail, Maclean’s magazine, CTV, the Torontoist and blogTO all ran stories in the last day, alleging that staff of Toronto’s newly-annointed mayor elect, Rob Ford, used a fake Twitter account to deceive a voter into handing over incriminating materials during the campaign.
The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter by using fake online personas to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda.
From Facebook to Twitter to ‘check-in’s,’ ‘followers’ and ‘pokes’ galore, it’s increasingly hard for social media users to distinguish who their “friends” really are. Now add this to your list of concerns: on behalf of the U.S. Air Force, are your “friends” even real people?
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.
