shill accounts
Paid fake profiles
Shill accounts are fake or deceptive social media profiles created to promote a product, person, or agenda while pretending to be ordinary users.
The term combines shill—someone secretly paid to endorse something—with the digital age's anonymous accounts.
Companies use them to generate fake enthusiasm; political operatives deploy them to simulate grassroots support: Half the positive reviews were from shill accounts.
Also called sock puppets or astroturf accounts.
- fake followersInauthentic social media audience
- botsAutomated software agents
- bot farmsNetworks of automated accounts
- click farmsFraudulent engagement operations
- astroturfingDisguised sponsored advocacy
trolls · troll farms · sockpuppets · propaganda · manipulation · spam · influencers · paid promotion · disinformation · brigading · review bombing · upvotes · engagement · followers · reviews · comments · coordinated · inauthentic
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