Fake posters can "poison" debate and make people unsure about who they can trust, the study suggests.

Some firms have created tens of thousands of fake accounts to flood chat forums and skew debate.

The researchers say there are reliable ways to spot fakes and urge websites to do more to police users.

The researchers from Canada and China say paying people to post comments is an "interesting strategy in business marketing" but it is not a benign activity.

"Paid posters may create a significant negative effect on the online communities, since the information from paid posters is usually not trustworthy," they wrote.

Battles

In some cases, rival companies have used competing armies of workers to wage comment wars that confused members of the public looking for unbiased information.

The researchers say the fake comments can overwhelm some users, causing them to find it hard to trust any information found online.

They give the example of a spike in activity on a World of Warcraft chat forum on the Chinese website Baidu.

A thread titled "Junpeng Jia, your mother asked you to go back home for dinner!" received over 300,000 replies over a two day period.

A PR company later claimed it had employed 800 individuals to run 20,000 separate accounts on the site to help maintain interest in the videogame while it was down for maintenance.

Growing problem

While the practice of flooding forums with fake comments is most widespread in China, where such posters are called the Internet Water Army, it is becoming common in other nations too.

The US military is known to use fakes to infiltrate chat forums to gather information about potential terror groups.

Similarly many Facebook pages are plagued by bogus friends and "social bots" that are used to stage debates.

Many marketing firms also seed forums with comments in a bid to create "viral" interest in a company or event.

However, fakes can be spotted by analysing their patterns of activity and the words they use, say the researchers.

Fakes are more likely to start new comment threads, make inane comments rather than add to a debate, and repeat former comments with minor changes, the study suggests.

The researchers say they are refining software tools to help website administrators tackle the "painful" problem.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-15869683

or, we could go back to teaching 'logic' in schools so people can make better assessments of what they read instead of just taking it all as gospel,,,

I knew it! You're all fake posters and I'm the only real person here!

Just interesting and something to keep in mind.
Psssst I get paid by the letter but dont tell anyone.

Dang! I wanna get paid for wasting my time here!

Seriously though...you are right. It's something to keep in mind when participating in the forums.

I think as more people turn away from the mainstream media and go to alternative sources you will see more and more of this.

I prefer the news sites you can leave a comment and enjoy the comments left by others. If I were charged with manupulateing public opinion I would be negligent not to do this. I am sure it happens more than we know.

(there just made five bucks)

Where can I apply for a job?

Now there is a novel Idea...teaching children how to think instead of what to think.


Writer: LENNON, JOHN

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people living life in peace

You, you may say
I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world

You, you may say
I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will live as one

Optomistic69

You are such a flower child.

Ruth figured it out. I'm fake.

Oh I knew YOU were fake long before this.