• Evening Newbs@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Astroturfing is a very real thing that major companies participate in to sway public sentiment.

    • drekly@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Especially if they released a really successful game and then they released a really bad one that got them sued by their shareholders and they had to issue a public apology but internet sentiment is somehow still positive. Especially if that game had a $163 MILLION marketing budget.

      It’s modern advertising. Just start a friendly discussion on social media about your product or service with some purchased or fresh accounts, or just upvoted anything positive and downvote anything negative! Imagine the effect you could have on discussions if just a single person focused on this 8 hours a day for weeks, compared to organic discourse.

      People worry about Russian or Chinese botfarms but don’t stop to think that corporations are the ones with the most to gain from altering public perception worldwide.