Internet's 'sock puppets' are threatened species

More about commenters posting under a pseudonym or anonymously, more lawsuits being filed. Turns out the CEO of Whole Foods posted under a different name for several years on a financial website for the purpose of defaming a competitor. Publisher Conrad Black is alleged to have posted under a different name for the purpose of defamation. This article says Yahoo is testing a new method where posters would need to identify themselves accurately.

• "It was alleged that Lord Black himself signed onto a Yahoo Finance message board under the handle "nspector" and did battle, trashing speculators shorting shares of Hollinger International.

Whole Foods chief executive John Mackey was also recently outed as a virtual ventriloquist. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission revealed two weeks ago that for eight years, the green giant of grocers would sign on a Yahoo board with the variation of his wife, Deborah's name ("Rahodeb") and churn out black propaganda about his takeover target, Wild Oats. While hoping to drive down his rival's stock value.

• For years, everyone from CEOs to everyday Joes thought they could sign on to these low-tech sites with an invented name or just be anonymous to diss their nemeses, never for a moment worrying they might be nabbed for libel or corporate skullduggery....

Because of the world-wide reach of message boards, Mr. Sells predicts that the awards for damages could be greater than those offline because of their wider viewership.

On behalf of their clients, lawyers can ask a judge for a warrant that will compel an Internet Service Provider (ISP) or host site to turn over a user's Internet Protocol Address, which is series of digits not unlike a phone number."

• (Referring to moves toward greater transparency in general on message boards):

"It's the most invidious and corrosive medium on the Net," says Andrew Keen, author of The Cult of the Amateur: How Today's Internet is Killing our Culture. "We have to collectively address the issue of anonymity."

• Mr. Keen, who lives in Berkeley, Calif., sees anonymity and sock puppetry as part of the same problem: "In a way, sock puppeting is worse because it gives it a more intimate voice than anonymous.""

From The National Post, "Internet's Sock Puppets are Threatened Species," by Craig Offman, 7/27/07

• As small a blog as mine has experienced this very effective practice. Another blog was told the entire credibility of his site would be threatened if he did so much as repeat a small example of what I had monitored on television and posted on my own blog. The site merely mentioned what I'd noticed on tv. Then he published a comment by a user who went by a first name, eg. Joe, Sally, etc.--could be anybody. The mystery commenter said I had a 'conspiracy website' (I hadn't heard of such a thing before), that was 'silly' and it threatened the legitimacy of his site to note anything I said whatsoever. The proprietor of the site replied that I was quite accurate on the issue I'd monitored and reported on, but then just hoped my anonymous defamer would continue to visit his site. Which let stand the overall condemnation of my site as a whole in perpetuity and condoned his/her continued defamations. I might add the person gave no examples of anything I'd said that was incorrect. There are other examples, but that was one of the better ones. (sm).

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