Astroturfing

How it works

Grassroots means real people organising from the ground up. AstroTurf is plastic grass. Astroturfing is a campaign designed to look like the first while being the second: a “citizens’ movement” written by a PR agency, funded by whoever benefits, and rolled out to look like something that just happened.

The parts are standard. A name that sounds like the public (“Citizens for…”, “Mothers against…”, “Real Families for…”). A website with a logo, a petition and no address. A wave of identical letters to a parliament or a regulator. Comments, reviews and testimonials that all use the same phrases. Sometimes a few genuinely enthusiastic people are recruited as the face, which makes the whole thing much harder to call fake.

The classic documented case is tobacco: in the 1990s the industry funded “smokers’ rights” groups to fight smoking bans. The biggest recent one is the 2017 US net neutrality consultation. A 2021 investigation by the New York Attorney General found that broadband-industry money paid for roughly 8.5 million fake comments to the regulator, filed under the names of real people (some of them dead), and that on the other side a 19-year-old student submitted 7.7 million more under invented names. Both sides of a public consultation, manufactured.

Governments do it too: “spontaneous” rallies with bussed-in employees, or state-friendly “civil organisations” whose only activity is praising the state. The technique works the same for a party, an NGO or a company. The question is never the cause. It is who is pretending to be whom.

Example

@fair_energy_now, 1d We are 12,000 ordinary families saying NO to the new heating regulation. Ordinary people, no politics, just common sense. Sign the petition.

@reka.k.88, 20h Who runs this? The site has no address, no names, and the domain was registered three weeks ago. The press contact is an agency that works for the gas distributor.

@fair_energy_now, 19h We are a grassroots initiative and do not comment on funding questions. The families speak for themselves.

The group’s only position happens to be the one the distributor needs. “Ordinary people, no politics” is doing a lot of work here. So is the refusal to answer the one question that matters.

Why it works on you

• Crowds feel like truth. Twelve thousand families sounds like a verdict. You never check whether the twelve thousand exist (see bandwagon effect).
• “Ordinary people” beats “experts”. The campaign borrows the credibility of your neighbour, not the lobbyist. See ‘common sense’ and the silent majority.
• It gives you a side without a bill. Joining a citizens’ group feels like civic virtue. Joining a company’s lobbying effort does not, so the company hides the label.

What to do

When a movement appears from nowhere: ask three questions. Who registered the domain (whois, web archive)? Who is the press contact? Who benefits if they win? A real group answers the first two gladly.

When you catch yourself about to sign: read the actual demand. If the petition’s wording would fit neatly into a company’s lobbying brief, it probably came from one.

In a comment section: separate the cause from the campaign. “The heating rule may well be bad, but this group is a front, and here is how we know” is both fair and devastating.

Don’t confuse it with

• Real grassroots with professional help. Genuine movements hire designers and PR people too. The difference is whether they tell you who they are and who pays.
• Organised letter-writing by real members. A union sending its members a template is open about it. Astroturfing hides the sender.
• Sockpuppets are the retail version: one person faking a crowd. Astroturfing is the wholesale version with a budget. See sockpuppets.