ASTROTURFING AND HIDDEN HICCUPS

When the shopping malls began sprouting across Chennai, I became enthusiastic about exploring them to window shop, watch a flick, dine or shop. Shopping, in particular, was very convenient as I would often uncover shops selling similar items conveniently grouped or clustered together. Over the years, however, I developed a disenchantment for the malls as they began getting crowded, raucous, and cumbersome to shop.

Simultaneously, online shops like Amazon started emerging and thronging cyberspace, providing more comfort and convenience than malls. Suddenly, I had access to the world’s largest malls right on my palm. Along came the pandemic, which devastated and almost ruined the retail industry. Malls that were already perceiving the pressure from e-commerce and dwindling footfalls were abruptly bereft of shoppers, as the world locked itself down to contain the virus’s spread. Despite the raging pandemic, the government has allowed the opening of malls, but most people still prefer the pleasure of shopping online.

The first thing most of us do when we visit an online shop is to check out customer reviews. A customer review reveals an experience shared by a shopper on a product purchased or a service availed by him. ‘Eco-consultancy’ estimates that 61 per cent of buyers read online reviews before they decide to buy a product. And they also claim that their study shows that reviews left by customers are 12 times more trusted and relied on than the product descriptions posted by the manufacturers. These reviews have become unreliable as several companies have posted fake 5-star reviews from friends, relatives and hired reviewers to make more people purchase goods or services or post critical reviews to destroy the reputation of their competitors. Buzzfeed recently published a story of a woman who bought $15,000 products on Amazon, much of which was in bargain and exchange for writing five-star reviews.

While browsing a reputed online shop, I came across a sale of highly branded T-shirts for Rs 110 with 12,000 five-star reviews that appeared too good to be true. One of the significant hazards of shopping online is getting misled by deceptive reviews that delude the buyer into buying a shoddy product. Phoney reviews have proliferated in every province of e-commerce, from electronics to apparel to books to kids’ toys. There are some brilliant games like Angry Birds and apps like Evernote on the Internet, but I bet you might not be aware that the creators of apps can have 5000 reviews posted in favour of their app by shelling out a thousand dollars. Supplements and electronics are something I purchase predominantly online. A study performed in 2018 revealed that the supplements category on the Amazon website had the highest share of fake product reviews, with a registered 64 per cent of reviews being deemed fake. Electronics came close in second place, divulging that 61 per cent of its reviews were fake. Creating the delusion of comprehensive grassroots support for an app, candidate, policy, or cause when no such backing exists is ‘Astroturfing’. Astroturfing exploits the ‘herd instinct’ of people to embrace the opinions of the majority.

The term “astroturfing” was first conceived in 1985 by Texan Democrat Senator Lloyd Bentsen when he received a massive pile of cards and letters at his office promoting the insurance industry’s interests. It was then that the invention and installation of astroturf at Houston Astrodome had taken place, prompting Bentson to remark that “any Texan could tell the difference between the grass root and AstroTurf, implying it wouldn’t be hard to discern between a genuine letter and a fake or a generated email. Astroturfing crusades may get staged by corporations, lobbyists, labour unions, politicians or activist organisations, or individuals with personal agendas. Astroturfing is not a recent phenomenon. It has existed for centuries. In Shakespeare’s play ‘Julius Caesar’, Cassius arranges fake letters from “the public” to convince Brutus to assassinate Caesar.

Astroturfing is most times difficult to detect. The New York Times contends it is often hard to know between popular sentiment and manufactured public opinion. Bing Liu, a data mining expert at the University of Illinois, estimates that one-third of customer reviews on the Internet are fake. A 2011 report found that paid posters from competing companies often attack each other in forums and overwhelm regular participants in the process. The authentic grassroots movements are therefore in danger because of astroturfing. Corporates, politicians and support groups appear to have intentionally developed astroturfing to attain corporate agendas, manipulate opinion and harm research.

There are several techniques for accomplishing astroturfing. One of the astroturfing techniques is to prop up one or two groups who pretend to serve a public interest while working at the behest of a corporate or a political sponsor. Such groups may protest against legislation or a consensus regarding a new project through counterclaims and create doubts in the people’s minds. Astroturfing businesses pay staff based on the number of posts they make. Fake blogs, drafted by corporates, organisations, etc., sometimes get posted on personal websites as though created by a genuine consumer. Pharmaceutical companies are resorting to astroturfing to market their products by sponsoring patient support groups. Bloggers often get approached by corporations or groups with free products, paid travel and accommodation to astroturf their products or services.

Many countries have laws that forbid overt astroturfing practices. In India, the Consumer Protection Act, 1986 is the relevant law for customer protection. Section 6 of the said Act allows the Central Consumer Protection Council to promote and protect the rights of consumers. As most of the astroturfing offences take place in cyberspace, the government may have to enact a new law or amend the IT Act to include provisions against the crime of astroturfing.

Finally, some governments are using astroturfing as a weapon to counter propaganda during war or stifle dissent. Russia successfully employed astroturfing to get Donald Trump elected as the US President in 2016. Indian Intelligence agency RAW and the national parties in India are also astroturfing. Indian astroturfing revolves around creating dissent in the neighbourhood. The central theme of their astroturfing operation is the Indian narrative in aiding Baloch nationalists. In 2010, the US Air force developed a Persona Management software that enabled people to have many online identities without fear of being discovered by anyone. The US military used this software to spread pro-American propaganda in the Middle East and disrupt extremist propaganda and recruitment as a part of Operation Earnest Voice, a psychological warfare weapon against the groups opposed to coalition forces. In 2008, an expert on China, Rebecca MacKinnon revealed that China had employed 280,000 individuals in a government-sponsored astroturfing project to publish pro-China hype to drown out voices of dissent.