What do healthcare reform, climate change and financial regulation have in common? The answer is that they are all issues covered by astroturf, the practice of creating fake grassroots movements, usually by lobbyists and public relations (PR) experts. These attempts to manipulate the media and public opinion seem to be on the rise — spurred on in part by the political mood and the reach of the internet.
“Astroturf front groups have been everywhere this summer, spreading misinformation about healthcare reform, carbon emission caps and financial regulation,” says Timothy Karr, the campaign director for the US Web site freepress.net. “A healthy 21st century democracy doesn’t need phoney front groups. We need openness, accountability and real debate.”
Just a couple of weeks ago, Greenpeace uncovered a campaign in which US oil industry workers paraded as part of a supposedly spontaneous movement opposed to climate change regulations being considered by US legislators.
Thanks to a leaked memo from the American Petroleum Institute (API), Greenpeace learned that the “Energy Citizens” protest group was founded by the oil industry trade association and therefore indirectly funded by ExxonMobil, Shell and others. At the same time, a congressional inquiry found that letters to lawmakers attacking the proposed legislation — letters purporting to be from concerned members of the public — were also backed by energy groups.
The API said the Energy Citizens meetings were an attempt to lift the morale of oil industry workers, not to influence politicians.
“There’s a lot of folks out there that would like to suggest that anybody that doesn’t agree with their views somehow doesn’t play by the rules,” said Jack Gerard, the API president and author of the memo. “We disagree strongly with that.”
The Energy Citizens example is not a one-off, however. While the term astroturfing goes back to the mid-1980s, the practice began long ago. Unscrupulous marketers and lobbyists have long found ways to advance their paymasters’ agendas — including manufactured mail campaigns, fake crowd protests and, increasingly, use of the Web.
A “sock puppet” is a fake online identity created to support an argument — and, in many cases, they are untraceable.
Richard Levangie, who writes about climate change astroturfing at the One Blue Marble Web site, says he first came across it in the mid-1990s.
“I was passionate about slowing the rise of teenage smoking in my home province, and thought about starting an advocacy group that would work with teenagers ... that’s where I first came up against astroturfing, in the form of smokers’ rights groups who were ignoring the science about secondhand smoke, and who were trying to reframe the issue as freedom of choice.”
Astroturfing can range from a few forum posts or a comment praising a company to something closer to harassment, and from genuine disagreement and independent troublemakers to organized “trolls” all the way to the entirely fake campaigner.
News organizations are increasingly finding themselves pawns in this game. While political tit-for-tat is common in Web forums and on sites, the proliferation of certain comments around certain topics often leads to the suspicion that somebody else may be pulling the strings.
“It’s frustrating. They should have zero credibility, but they’re still around, still peddling misinformation,” Levangie said.
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