“Astroturfing is the deceptive practice of hiding the sponsors of an orchestrated message or organization to make it appear as though it originates from, and is supported by, unsolicited grassroots participants. It is a practice intended to give the statements or organizations credibility by withholding information about the source’s financial backers. The implication behind the use of the term is that instead of a “true” or “natural” grassroots effort behind the activity in question, there is a “fake” or “artificial” appearance of support.”
Wikipedia
The above definition is offered for those who are unfamiliar with the term. I’m wondering how long this technique has been in use, and where it has a history of known use.
Comments
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Why did you include a Wikipedia quote with your question?
I think that astroturfing falls under the more general practice of using a shill or confederate in a crowd to bolster someone.
For example, at an auction, the seller may have planted someone among the bidders to drive the price up.
Or someone running a three card monte game will have a confederate there who bets and appears to win.
So it is likely that this sort of collusion by people in the crowd goes back a long time, perhaps even to ancient times. Who knows exactly what happened at the trial of Socrates?
The difficultly in your question is that you are asking about something that is designed to be hidden, so knowing when it was first used will be difficult.
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