Digital astroturfing in politics: Definition, typology, and countermeasures

• DOI: 10.24434/j.scoms.2018.01.005
• Publication Date: 2020-08-20T08:18:07Z
• Authors: Marko Kovic; Adrian Rauchfleisch; Marc Sele; Christian Caspar
• Keywords: Grassroots; Phenomenon

In recent years, several instances of political actors who created fake grassroots activity on the Internet have been uncovered. We propose to call such online digital astroturfing, and we define it as a form manufactured, deceptive strategic top-down initiated by that mimics bottom-up autonomous individuals. The goal this paper is lay out conceptual map phenomenon astroturfing in politics. To end, introduce, first, typology according three dimensions (target, actor type, goals), and, second, concept repertoires, possible combinations tools, venues actions used efforts. Furthermore, explore restrictive incentivizing countermeasures against astroturfing. Finally, discuss prospects for future research: Even though empirical research difficult, neither impossible nor futile.