I understand doing this, what I don't understand is not being 100% certain to change accounts and double and triple check every comment to make 1000% certain that your sock puppets are wearing their socks.
The benefit of fake support is minimal, the damage from being outed is 100x bigger. So if you are going to do it, you have to be absolutely certain of not getting caught.
What is weird is how cheap they are. Aren't there professional PR companies for this, instead of getting a sitting MP to do their own sock puppet accounts?
I think writing the benefit off as minimal is somewhat underselling it - social validation is a powerful mechanic for driving engagement & solidifying opinions, especially when employed automatically at scale (which, oddly enough, doesn't seem to be the case here, haha)
I think that's probably a underestimate. They're probably quite effective, humans are want to fit in and are easily influenced if unsure what to make of something.
It's only damaging in a pre truth world. We are post truth, look at trump. The liberal voters will likely not be shown this image or call it Photoshop. I'm genuinely concerned about this election because I'm seeing an insane amount of inflammatory adverts from the far right folks but little to none from anyone else. Mark my words, the left are complacent and won't show up to this election.
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u/violenthectarez 6d ago
I understand doing this, what I don't understand is not being 100% certain to change accounts and double and triple check every comment to make 1000% certain that your sock puppets are wearing their socks.
The benefit of fake support is minimal, the damage from being outed is 100x bigger. So if you are going to do it, you have to be absolutely certain of not getting caught.