Ever wonder why you sometimes visit blogs and notice that comments are filled with dozens of inane posts spouting right wing slogans of questionable relevance to the topic? Or, how anti-Democratic posts sometimes get kicked and recommended to the greatest threads on liberal websites while anti-Republican or anti-corporate posts sink into obscurity? In a post Citizens United universe, will dialogue and discussion get swamped in a flood of auto-generated, anti-Democratic spam funded by corporate interests as part of a guerilla propaganda campaign?
http://blog.holtz.com/index.php/weblog/comments/the_pr_industry_must_condemn_massive_automated_sock-puppetry/
The use of software to automate the deployment of armies of fake social media accounts is, to me, the most disturbing trend in the social space. It’s disturbing on its face but even moreso because public affairs organizations are among the most likely to supply these services. And few would be surprised to find PR practitioners behind such dubious efforts.
I don’t personally know a single public relations practitioner who would support such a tactic. But it’s a big industry that requires no licensing and is bound by few regulations. That makes it easy for those who are lazy, corrupt, unprofessional or just downright evil to make big money from clients looking for quick results without regard to the means by which they were achieved.
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At the Daily Kos, the concern is that such practices will be employed by right-leaning institutions against “labor unions, progressive organizations, journalists, and progressive bloggers.” As for me, I don’t care who uses it against whom. Manipulating consensus is wrong, unethical, unprofessional and the very antitheses of the transparency and responsibility that are at the heart of the changes sweeping business today.
And, of course, when it’s uncovered (and it will be uncovered), the blame will fall at the PR profession’s feet. As The Kos article so bluntly put it, “This is just one little company of assholes. I can’t believe there aren’t others doing this already. From oil companies, political campaigns, PR firms, you name it. Public opinion means big bucks. And let’s face it, what these guys are talking about is easy.”