Astroturfing
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For the artificial grass, see
AstroTurf.
Astroturfing is a word in English describing formal
political,
advertising, or
public relations campaigns seeking to create the impression of being spontaneous "
grassroots" behavior, hence the reference to the
artificial grass,
AstroTurf.
The goal of such a campaign is to disguise the efforts of a political or commercial entity as an independent public reaction to some political entity—a politician, political group, product, service or event. Astroturfers attempt to orchestrate the actions of apparently diverse and geographically distributed individuals, by both overt ("outreach", "awareness", etc.) and covert (
disinformation) means. Astroturfing may be undertaken by an individual pushing a personal agenda or highly organized professional groups with financial backing from large corporations, non-profits, or activist organizations. Very often the efforts are conducted by political consultants who also specialize in
opposition research.