| 1 | %% Image kept on page per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=16741468370.79282400 |
| 2 | %% Image and caption selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1349087884099720100 |
| 3 | %% Please do not change or remove either without starting a new thread. |
| 4 | %% |
| 5 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alex_brown_sock_puppet.png]] |
| 6 | [[caption-width-right:350:"Your argument [[{{Pun}} socks]]!"\ |
| 7 | [-[[http://www.flickr.com/photos/alexbrn/7919873782/ Photo by Alex Brown]], used under [[https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/ CC BY-NC 2.0]] license.]]-] |
| 8 | |
| 9 | A secondary, pseudonymous Net identity created by an individual in order to give the impression that there are multiple people who agree with a given point, idea, or action, when in reality [[VocalMinority there's only one]]. Sock puppets are usually used to post follow-ups that [[ButHeSoundsHandsome praise their owner]] or echo their convictions, in the hopes that they will convince real people to pay attention to them and/or their agenda. Alternatively, they can be used to argue against the poster's real agenda, [[TheWarOnStraw but in such a stupid or offensive manner as to discredit the opposition]]. Sometimes, they are used to evade bans. While the first Sock Puppets appeared on Platform/{{Usenet}} (i.e. they are pretty much as old as discussion on the Internet itself), they have long since spread to other electronic venues, most notably blogs. |
| 10 | |
| 11 | Sock puppeteers are not limited to individuals, though. Numerous groups — political, commercial, and religious — have attempted to manipulate public opinion on the Net using false identities that purported to be "real" people. And multiple Sock Puppets are a necessary part of any AstroTurf campaign. Fortunately, they tend to be fairly heavy-handed and reasonably obvious to most people. |
| 12 | |
| 13 | The term is a long-standing one in electronic media, dating back to the early days of the Net in the 1980s. It originated on Usenet and is still seen there, especially in the anti-spam groups. The term itself comes from the practice of creating a cheap puppet by pulling a sock over your hand, and then pretending to talk to it. One sub-category of the sock puppet is the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troll_(Internet)#Concern_troll "concern troll"]], in which a sock puppet pretends to be part of a faction but makes "concerned" derogatory comparisons to another faction for whom the troll is a sock puppet. |
| 14 | |
| 15 | This is one of the more popular [[https://i.pinimg.com/originals/0c/4b/3b/0c4b3b290072dd585c9d229f8dbe1a52.jpg "Internet Argument Techniques"]] very common in forums and mainly used by trolls; this can be a source of frustration to users trying to have an honest debate. Can also be a source of laughs, not only for the trolls and others in on the ruse, but for other users following the argument. Once discovered, this is commonly used as another point against the user and/or another way to discredit their arguments.[[note]]Of course, someone could always create fairly obvious sock puppets claiming to agree with the opposition for this very purpose, if they were a particularly MagnificentBastard.[[/note]] |
| 16 | |
| 17 | Sock puppets are banned in ''many'' online venues. Website/{{Wikipedia}} is notoriously plagued with them; its "anyone can edit" philosophy makes it hard to keep them out, while its bureaucratic processes provide incentives for their creation. |
| 18 | |
| 19 | AdHominem can occur if someone on the internet accuses another of being a sock puppet when the accused is actually providing an honest opinion of dissent and asking an honest question about accountability and credibility. This might be done by either trolls or as an example of FanDumb or HateDumb to not have to answer to a criticism or dissenting opinion while still discrediting the person that dissented. |
| 20 | |
| 21 | Compare InternetMimic, when someone online mimics the talking/typing style of a celebrity. Contrast AstroTurf and the second definition of MeatPuppet. Not to be confused with an actual HandPuppet made from a sock. For when you're not sure whether the person is sincere or not, that's PoesLaw. |
| 22 | ---- |
| 23 | !!Real-life Examples: |
| 24 | |
| 25 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 26 | |
| 27 | [[folder:Print media]] |
| 28 | * Benjamin Franklin was one of the first examples. He attacked his former employee's paper, which published encyclopedia articles in alphabetical order starting with "abortion", by writing as women named Martha Careful and Celia Shortface in a friend's paper. He later switched to Busy-Body, and drove his former employee out of business, and started using that paper for his own purpose. |
| 29 | ** Sock puppetry was a big part of the political discourse of the early American republic. UsefulNotes/AlexanderHamilton was a frequent user of sock puppets in his various contributions to newspapers of the era. |
| 30 | * In 2009, Scientific journal publisher Elsevier was [[http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/may/09/bad-science-medical-journals-companies busted with publishing "journals"]] that were merely sock puppets of medical companies, containing nothing but positive reports about the drugs they produced. |
| 31 | * In 2010 the ''Cleveland Plain Dealer'' [[http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2010/01/letter_writer_claims_diverse_r.html reported]] on the surprising number of letters to newspapers across the United States from one "Ellie Light", who always claimed to be a resident of whatever city each paper covers. The letters were all nearly identical, and praised President Barack Obama while castigating detractors and the press for not supporting him. |
| 32 | * [[Music/ThePolice Stewart Copeland]] admitted to doing this to help boost sales of The Police's first single, "Fall Out", writing letters to different music magazines praising the single. |
| 33 | * A Utah mayor was caught [[http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/politics/52893782-90/winder-deseret-news-articles.html.csp submitting glowing articles about his city]] to a local newspaper using a pseudonym. |
| 34 | * There are early 1990s tapes of Creator/DonaldTrump pretending to be a spokesperson so he could tell reporters how amazing he is. |
| 35 | * British science fiction writer Lionel Fanthorpe is notorious for this. He was a highly prolific writer who used a large number of pseudonyms in his writing -- and would occasionally use them to review works of his other personae. Some of the reviews are even quoted in his book's cover blurbs. |
| 36 | * Upcoming author Cait Corrain was [[https://time.com/6397305/cait-corrain-goodreads-review-bomb-authors/ exposed for doing this]] on Goodreads in late 2023, which ultimately led to her [[RoleEndingMisdemeanour losing her book deal]]. She created at least eight alternate accounts to boost her debut book's rating on Goodreads, while simultaneously posting negative reviews of other upcoming books she believed would 'compete' with hers. Upon being exposed, she made up ''another'' social media account supposedly belonging to a friend, who she tried to claim was responsible for the fake Goodreads accounts and review-bombing, including posting screenshots of a supposed confrontation between them. Few were convinced and Corrain later confessed she alone was responsible. Her publishers and agent were unimpressed, to say the least. |
| 37 | [[/folder]] |
| 38 | |
| 39 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 40 | * One episode of ''Series/KitchenNightmares'' had a restaurant owner adding ridiculously positive reviews of his own restaurant at various websites, claiming his restaurant was even better than Gordon Ramsay's. Ramsay was not amused, to say the least. |
| 41 | * ''Watchdog'', specifically the ''Rogue Traders'' part, had an amusing example of a case where the owner of a sewing machine company used these... over the telephone. Seriously, he'd pretend to be multiple people working for the same company to respond to complaints with threats and insults and fob off any unsatisfied customers wanting a refund. You can read their official write up of the story [[http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mg74/features/rogue-traders-coopers-sewing here on their site]] |
| 42 | %%* ''Series/TheOReillyFactor'': When Bill O'Reilly was pressed to provide proof that France's economy was taking a hit because of his call for a boycott after their lack of support for the United States' actions in Iraq, he cited an article in the wholly imaginary ''Paris Business Review''. |
| 43 | [[/folder]] |
| 44 | |
| 45 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 46 | In the age of online gaming where one has to have an account to play a game, it's not uncommon to find people using these, typically called "alternate" accounts. Please keep all examples in this section to general practices and notable instances. |
| 47 | * Players with a particular interest in online games can use differing types of sock puppets: |
| 48 | ** In games (chiefly {{MMORPG}}s) where players have finite storage space, people tend to use puppet accounts mainly to circumvent the storage limits of rare materials. Depending on the game, these tend to be called "Bank" alts or "mules"; sometimes whole guilds actually pay for an extra account just to act as an extra storage for items. |
| 49 | ** In most genres with PVP mechanics, there will be some who use "dummy" accounts just to [[{{Griefer}} screw with other players]], reasoning that if they actually can get banned for griefing, it is better to use a dummy account than to lose all that time and effort they invested into their main account/character. |
| 50 | ** Meanwhile, games involving players divided into factions tends to have some sort of restriction that prevents you from interacting with anyone who doesn't pick the same side you do (Outside of PVP modes, of course). Most games let you create more than one character, but some, like ''VideoGame/DynastyWarriorsOnline'', don't let you create any more than a few, or even one character, keeping things like Trading impossible with most people without a second or third account. |
| 51 | * ''VideoGame/DungeonKeeper'' for iOS systems managed to get 5000 5 / 5 star reviews by people, with quotes in said reviews ranging from "This game is trash" to "EA has another smash hit!", despite ''all'' of them rating the game 5 / 5 stars. It wasn't until actual gaming sites and magazines started to come out with 1 / 5 reviews that the contrast became evident, seeing as its reliance on being an AllegedlyFreeGame tries to get you to pay up to 80 dollars for the largest amount of "crystals". |
| 52 | |
| 53 | [[/folder]] |
| 54 | |
| 55 | [[folder:Web Original]] |
| 56 | * Online newspapers having discussion forums: To discourage (among other things) sock puppetry, many online newspapers require users wishing to participate in discussion forums to register with (and depending on the newspaper, use) their real name. Some even require using a credit card to both validate the account and defeat attempts to circumvent the rules (e.g., creating multiple free web-based e-mail accounts simply to create several screen names). This way, arguments with merit gain support or at the very least create valid debates, while weaker or invalid points that would otherwise be supported only by the sockpuppet accounts are quickly disputed and flushed out. |
| 57 | * Video game publishers have been known to offer jobs which consist of using sockpuppets to post on various gaming forums to praise their products. They even provide outlines for different consistent personas to create and maintain (girl gamer, casual gaming jock, etc.) and daily post requirements which can have three digits. |
| 58 | * [[http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/ Glenn Greenwald's]] infamous self-inflating sock puppetry is described [[http://ace.mu.nu/archives/187585.php here]]-but given its definitive treatment [[http://wuzzadem.typepad.com/wuz/2006/07/greenpuppet.html here WITH REAL SOCK PUPPETS]]. |
| 59 | * Microsoft is infamous for having paid shills to post pro-Microsoft messages in forums with notably anti-Microsoft attitudes. So has Apple. |
| 60 | * Several of the entries on Wikipedia's BJAODN (Bad Jokes and Other Deleted Nonsense) pages consist of debates that involved Sock Puppets. Somehow, several of those debates turned into parodies of the Sock Puppet concept. |
| 61 | * Another notable incident in Website/{{Wikipedia}} sock puppetry is the deletion debate for the article on ''Webcomic/StarslipCrisis'', a {{webcomic}} by Kris Straub. The discussion overwhelmingly favoured deleting the article, which a passing admin then enacted. At this point [[https://web.archive.org/web/20070322191145/http://www.halfpixel.com/2007/03/18/delete-wikipedia-a-webcomics-case-study/ Straub revealed]] ''he'' had been the nominator. And ten of the user accounts arguing for deletion. From the same IP. Using factually incorrect arguments. It's bad form to misbehave on the Wikipedia to make a point, but everyone seemed to be too busy gaping in astonishment at Straub's [[BatmanGambit brilliant execution of the plot]] to notice. |
| 62 | ** By way of background: one of Wikipedia's criteria for article existence is that the subject be ''Notable'' in its field, which is subjective and open to interpretation at the best of times and an absolute minefield when it comes to things which exist solely on the internet. "Webcomics vs. Wikipedia" had been a growing debate for years before Straub's experiment. Considering Wikipedia itself mainly resides on the net, this suggests the somewhat ironic question of its own notability. |
| 63 | ** Wikipedia's own rules specifically say that deletion debates are ''not a vote'', and thus that simply having a majority in favor of either keeping or deleting an article doesn't carry the day. The closing admin is supposed to to weigh the quality of both sides' arguments, not just the quantity. Thus, the admin was clearly DoingItWrong, though given Wikipedia's well-known systemic bias toward deletion in such debates that's hardly a surprise. |
| 64 | * According to an August 29, 2006 [[http://www.startribune.com/587/story/643133.html article]] in the ''[=StarTribune=]'' of Minneapolis City Council member and mayoral candidate Pat Carr from Rochester, Minnesota, was caught using a sock puppet to praise himself on a local newspaper's website. |
| 65 | * In 2006, a senior editor of ''The New Republic'' was caught at the game. Lee Siegel, who writes a blog on ''The New Republic'''s website, was discovered to be using a Sock Puppet with the name "sprezzatura" to provide counterspin when most of the comments to his blog proved to be rather harshly critical. Unsurprisingly, "sprezzatura" praised and defended Siegel so obsequiously and extravagantly that the ''real'' posters on the blog quickly identified it as a sock puppet. Because of its implications about the duties of journalists in the online medium, the matter was actually covered in the September 13, 2006 ''New York Times''. |
| 66 | ** Siegel went on to write a book, ''Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob'', that warns about the dangers of the internet's anonymous culture. |
| 67 | ** Keep in mind this is also a man who seriously used the term "blogofascists" in some of his writings, and you can practically smell the schadenfreude. |
| 68 | * The comics author Creator/ReginaldHudlin has been caught using sock puppets to defend his work on ''Black Panther''. |
| 69 | * In the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' fandom, an individual using the handle Msscribe famously created a whole zoo of sock puppets over a period of years in order to increase her popularity and become friends with FandomVIP Cassandra Claire. She was eventually unveiled in very long and epic chronicle of her misdeeds by... a sock puppet. The event is referred to as [[https://web.archive.org/web/20130203000224/http://www.journalfen.net/users/charlottelennox/784.html Puppetgate]][[note]]In case any of the links on the web archive are broken, there is also a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_DZd78WLQY YouTube video detailing everything]][[/note]]. Due to this, the phrases "Maybe they're Msscribe" and "Maybe I'm Msscribe" became [[MemeticMutation memetic in the fandom.]] (It's been theorized that Charlotte Lennox is in fact multiple people, given the staggering amount of work that went into chronicling the whole thing.) |
| 70 | * A tool called the [[http://wikiscanner.virgil.gr/ Wikipedia Scanner]] has been developed, which allows people to search for anonymous Wikipedia edits from specific IP ranges -- those belonging to a specific company, for example. HilarityEnsues. |
| 71 | ** There's a Twitter feed, [[https://twitter.com/parliamentedits Parliament WikiEdits]], which tracks anonymous Wikipedia edits from the IP block belonging to the UK Houses of Parliament. Sometimes these are factual corrections by someone who has access to the original data, but a number of them look like this. (The remainder look like Government researchers need to stop goofing off when they're on the clock.) |
| 72 | * The PR wing of Scientology's Office of Special Affairs has ''an entire staff'' of people whose job is to create sock puppets in order to spam the comment sections of news articles and various newsgroups with either pro-Scientology messages or confusing junk posts. ([[http://raincoaster.com/2008/01/27/anonymous-demonstration-london-church-of-scientology/#comment-249716 Example]]) Unfortunately for them, the more active spammers aren't very good at hiding themselves. Wikipedia eventually imposed a blanket editing ban on all computers associated with the Church of Scientology and its affiliates. |
| 73 | * Some college faculty have even resorted to boosting their own ratings on [[http://www.ratemyprofessors.com Rate My Professors]] with anonymous reviews. [[http://www.ratemyprofessors.com/ShowRatings.jsp?tid=480726 This Biology professor]] is #6 on the list of "hottest professors" (yep...they have a list for that) mostly through some very positive reviews that are all suspiciously capitalized perfectly, similarly indignant, and make repeated statements ("You won't get into med school," "Go to her office hours and you'll do fine," etc.). A few raters have even pointed out the obvious sock puppets. |
| 74 | * In New Zealand, there's "Rate my Teacher" (be careful saying it out loud). One particular English teacher attempted to boost her ratings with a pair of all-five-star reviews in a sea of 1s and zeros, again, capitalized correctly and punctuated clearly. |
| 75 | * [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial This wiki totally doesn't have any examples.]] The forum, on the other hand, has the infamous DarthWiki/{{Venhax}}. One Tnophelia holds the second place after getting banned for creation of '''over forty sock puppets'''. Less seriously, it's not at all uncommon in larger media threads for tropers to create alternate accounts to roleplay as characters from the works being discussed. |
| 76 | * One lone, particularly fanatical ''Series/{{Smallville}}'' fan [[https://web.archive.org/web/20121012124344/http://wiki.fandomwank.com/index.php/Don%27t_You_Have_Any_Personalities_That_Aren%27t_Complete_Asshats%3F had 28 separate socks,]] each with different opinions and writing styles. And had them fight. It was apparently related to her spontaneous proposal to actor Tom Welling (who in RealLife is happily married to someone else). |
| 77 | * Because Internet Spaceships are SeriousBusiness, ''VideoGame/EveOnline'''s [[http://www.eveonline.com/ingameboard.asp?a=topic&threadID=936683 Corporation, Alliance and Organization Discussion forum]] requires posters to identify their in-game political affiliations. |
| 78 | * [[Website/FourChan /b/]], the haven of trolls that it is, thrives on socks, especially when one is trying to direct another poster to a questionable link or delete his own hard drive. They're charmingly referred to as samefags, though accusations like this generally get thrown around regardless of whether or not they actually think the other anons are sock puppets. |
| 79 | * An interviewer for ''Harper's'' magazine, trying to get in touch with ''Film/TheRoom2003'' auteur Tommy Wiseau, first had to arrange an interview through a man named "John," allegedly the "administrator" of Wiseau Films. (John is the same guy who sent cease-and-desist letters to Website/ChannelAwesome for reviewing his film.) Judging by John's peculiar brand of broken English, the writer theorized that John may in fact be Tommy Wiseau himself. The promo material for ''The Room'' included enthusiastic blurbs from alleged publications/websites called ''Entertainment Today'' and ''Beverly Hills 90210'' (not [[Series/BeverlyHills90210 that one]]), that just happen to have the same shaky command of English and odd obsessions of Wiseau himself. ''Literature/TheDisasterArtist'' seemingly confirms that "John" is a pseudonym of Wiseau. |
| 80 | * The message boards at the official ''Franchise/StarWars'' site feature a few recurrent socks, but none as persistent as one originally known as The Rev, who has created ''literally thousands'' of fake accounts to harass the boards. |
| 81 | * Fantasy author Robert Stanek is notorious for this. He [[VanityPublishing self publishes]] his books, then creates hundred of false accounts on Amazon to praise his books, creates false fansites for his own books and [[https://web.archive.org/web/20201125073533/http://conjugalfelicity.com/robert-stanek/the-photoshop-debacle/ photoshops pictures with himself and other fantasy authors]]. His sockpuppets also created Wikipedia pages about himself (before they were deleted) and extensively spammed the website Library Thing, leading to a permanent warning on his page. |
| 82 | * A group of these flooded the "Songs for Tibet -- The Art of Peace" charity compilation with one-star reviews written in broken English and/or Chinese [[StrawmanPolitical referring to the Dalai Lama as a slaveowner]] and promoting the [[UsefulNotes/{{China}} People's Republic of China.]] |
| 83 | * This is done quite frequently on [=IMDb.com=]. One incident involved a person with the username "[=GeniusIQ600=]". He quickly got to be disliked after reporting anything even slightly off topic, claiming that he was taking screencaps of disparaging replies to him and having his parents sue the repliers, and insisting that a female poster was mentally ill because she was bisexual. Sometime after, he changed his username to impersonate this female user (during which point in time he made a thread stating that "she" spoke out against Genius after not taking her medication) and began starting a handful of sock puppet accounts which always came to his aid and insisted that he had "good ideas". Perhaps the strangest one was when he tried to pass off a sock puppet as an [=IMDb=] mod to intimidate other users into not disagreeing with him. |
| 84 | * In 2003, a ''[[Series/ThePriceisRight Price is Right]]'' fan site known as [=Golden-Road.net=] was spammed by one of the show's substitute announcers following the death of [[TheAnnouncer Rod Roddy]]. The person in question (Daniel Rosen) created numerous sockpuppet accounts which bantered back and forth about how great his voice work was... when in fact he was almost universally despised by both the legit members and the show's staff. Nobody was amused. |
| 85 | * An example of a "concern troll" version of a sock puppet was Tad Furtado, a top staffer for then-Congressman Charles Bass (R-NH), who was caught posing as a "concerned" supporter of Bass' opponent, Democrat Paul Hodes, using the pseudonyms "[=IndieNH=]" or "[=IndyNH=]". "[=IndyNH=]" expressed concern that Democrats might just be wasting their time or money on Hodes, because Bass was unbeatable. |
| 86 | * Peter Pedersen, member of Swedish parliament, once gave a suggestion that can be watched subtitled [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYTGDkWMe0M&feature=related here:]] that somebody invent a battery that not only powers a car but also, using for instance a dynamo, somehow extracts so much energy from the car that, simply by driving the car, you receive enough power to keep on driving it. In other words, Pedersen wondered why they couldn't just invent a ''perpetuum mobile'', which it is well-known that nobody can ever do since it would violate at least one fundamental law of physics. When this was put on Platform/YouTube, scornful and jeering comments poured in, but one recently registered user started defending Pedersen vigorously. It didn't take long for most users to come to the conclusion that this user was Mr. Pedersen himself. |
| 87 | * {{Fanfic}}tion author [[http://www.fanfiction.net/u/40569/ Jared "Skysaber" Ornstead]], who has long claimed problems with hatemail and other shenanigans from people who do not like his work or style, used a second online identity, [[http://www.fanfiction.net/u/40569/ "Perfect Lionheart"]] for over three years starting in 2007 in order to escape them. Lionheart and Skysaber favorited each other on Platform/FanFictionNet, and Lionheart denied claims that he was Skysaber made by readers who found their styles virtually identical. |
| 88 | * There were persistent rumors during the ''Series/Jericho2006'' [[SendingStuffToSaveTheShow Nuts!]] campaign that Creator/{{CBS}} was using paid trolls to break up the movement. Whether or not that was even possible, several sock puppets were discovered in the later days of the fandom. One person was caught having as many as seven handles, all used to spread their socio-political viewpoint (right-wing religious conspiracy theories) on the same board. There was an extreme amount of trolling going on in the fandom at the end of the second season. Some put it down to the show's BrokenBase; others thought the campaign may have attracted a certain personality type; but some still point that a rather large number of those trolls were very web-savvy, very organized and rather literate compared to your usual flame-baiters. |
| 89 | * Website/{{Kongregate}} allows anyone over the age of 13 have as many accounts as willing. The practice is used even by the moderators, some of which have their moderator status on a separate, alternative account with no post count and no points, used to moderate while the main account is used for actual fun. Many users, including some moderators, have a main account holding all the pizazz, and multiple "alt" accounts acting precisely as sockpuppets. Sometimes, due to no accounts-per-email limit and the fact the registration takes about a minute and the account is active immediately after, new accounts are created just for a single purpose of having a fitting name to answer a discussion. This system, however, causes people to be practically unbannable - anyone banned can just make another account and resume whatever was he or she was doing. |
| 90 | * This is why eBay seller ratings have to be taken with a grain of salt: some sellers create fictional accounts for the purpose of giving themselves feedback. Some users will cheat the system if they're not happy with how their auction is going. If the bid is too low they will use another account to outbid at the last second so they won't have to sell. |
| 91 | * According to [[http://wonkette.com/439132/facebook-lou-sarah-account-violated-our-terms-of-service this article]], UsefulNotes/SarahPalin briefly had an alternate Facebook identity that "like"d a lot of her posts. |
| 92 | * Scott Adams, creator of the ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' newspaper strip, [[http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/scott-adams-caught-defending-himself-anonymously-on-metafilter_b27969 got caught]] using a sockpuppet called [=PlannedChaos=] to defend himself (and promote himself as a "certified genius") on Metafilter. |
| 93 | * Dennis R. Upkins, author of ''Literature/{{Hollowstone}}'', [[http://i55.tinypic.com/2n81p3n.png got caught]] writing a review of his own book on Amazon under an assumed name. In particular, it was noted that his sock pretended to be a bisexual woman who praised the book for its female characters (his book has been criticized on some forums for poor depictions of said characters). He was caught because his sock account was linked to his real credit card, so Amazon displayed his real name next to his assumed identity. |
| 94 | * [[http://reason.com/archives/2003/05/01/the-mystery-of-mary-rosh One of the more celebrated cases]] happened when people noticed that someone named Mary Rosh was bombarding Usenet, email lists, blogs, and even Amazon.com with posts praising and defending controversial conservative academic and pro-gun advocate John Lott. "Mary" claimed to be one of his former students and said that Lott was "the best professor I ever had." After one journalist figured out that Mary's posts and emails came from the same IP address as Lott's, he fessed up. |
| 95 | * A Platform/YouTube user known as "[=RonPaulHatesBlacks=]" is suspected of having around forty sock accounts, which he uses to vote his comments up. |
| 96 | * One of the worst offenders is the Wrestling/MollyHolly stalker. He has over 40 accounts on Platform/YouTube (most notably one called "noragreenwaldisacunt") plus many more on Website/{{Blogspot}} and Dailymotion. His posts are all suspiciously similar in style. WordOfGod is he fell in love with her but went over the DespairEventHorizon when she got engaged to her now-husband. |
| 97 | * An absolutely massive problem on Website/GameFAQs supposedly, with no real rules to stop people making/using multiple accounts to the point some users had over 500 of them. More to the point, after some people using sockpuppets failed to fool others on the forums, they've been known to mass suicide the lot, aka post offensive/illegal content with all the alts. |
| 98 | * Website/StarDestroyerDotNet gives each admin and some of the moderators one sockpuppet account. One account is their "everyday use" account, the other is the account they use when making administrative decisions. For example, site owner Mike Wong goes by Darth Wong normally and switches to [=AdmiralKanos=] when he needs to (for example) ban someone. Apart from that, sockpuppeting is a bannable offense. |
| 99 | * [[Series/TheAtheistExperience Matt Dillahunty]] was accused of this, when he performed a SecretTestOfCharacter on the members of a certain forum he was a well-known member of: He wanted to prove to the forum's critics and detractors that, contrary to their claims, the people of said forum were polite, reasonable and open to ideas; So he posed as a new user called "Curious" and made a post with controversial but also sincere arguments (and not at the extent of [[{{Troll}} trolling]]) in the hopes of making the point of "See? This is how you make arguments without being shut down or banned" to the detractors; Unfortunately, the critics were proven right when his post was unilaterally removed (and then went down on a memory hole) and his subsequent posts following the process to appeal this were met with disdain and ridicule by both the members and moderators. It wasn't until Matt revealed his true identity that he was then treated more respectfully, but then he was immediately accused of sock puppetry and also demanded to issue an apology for his "social experiment", and when he refused [[https://a-plus-scribe.com/doku.php?id=transcriptions:matt_dillahunty_ok_with_ban_-_but_not_with_blame he was banned from there]]. |
| 100 | * Platform/LiveJournal communities often see Sockpuppets used to get around bans. |
| 101 | * Ben Eisenkop, better known on {{Website/Reddit}} as Unidan, was a well known member of the site's community... until he got caught for blatant vote rigging using alternate accounts, often upvoting himself and downvoting his opponents (due to how the site works, having votes just below 0 means your post is hidden. He basically silenced the people he argued against this way). He was shadowbanned in July 2014. |
| 102 | * [[Platform/FIMFictionDotNet FIMFiction]] allows multiple accounts under the one condition that they do not favorite or like each others' stories. That being said, it is not uncommon for site users to have an account to host their K-T content, and a different account to host their [[Rule34 clop,]] a practice even site moderator and Blog/EquestriaDaily prereader Alexstraza got in on with his clop account "Quixotic." |
| 103 | * Shortly after his decision to sign with the Golden State Warriors in mid-2016, Kevin Durant was found to have used multiple sock puppet accounts on various social media platforms to argue with detractors and praise his own decision to move to the Dubs. When this was discovered in early 2017, it became (and currently remains) a bit of a meme among the sports community to address the poster of a pro-Golden State/Kevin Durant post as though they actually were Kevin Durant. |
| 104 | * An remarkably elaborate example of this became a minor scandal in 2018. Countless news stories about student loans featured quotes from Drew Cloud, the founder of the "independent, authoritative" website The Student Loan Report, who frequently communicated with journalists and pitched them story ideas as well. ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'' became curious about Cloud and how he was able to quickly establish himself as an expert with all the latest data. After some digging they established the truth: "Drew Cloud" was a fictional character, and The Student Loan Report was a website owned by [=LendEDU=], an online student loan marketplace. The [=LendEDU=] founders had cooked up an elaborate backstory for Cloud, and even used a friend's picture to represent Cloud. They also didn't disclose The Student Loan Report's connection to [=LendEDU=]. After ''The Chronicle'' [[https://www.chronicle.com/article/Drew-Cloud-Is-a-Well-Known/243217 published their story]], [=LendEDU=]'s founders put up an apology on The Student Loan Report's site for the whole debacle. |
| 105 | * In October 2019, it was [[https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/21/politics/mitt-romney-pierre-delecto-twitter/index.html discovered]] that Senator Mitt Romney was running a Twitter account in the name of "Pierre Delecto" from which he anonymously counterattacked his critics. |
| 106 | * ''WebVideo/WhenPostingGoesWrong'' is an AnalysisChannel about infamous fandom drama and internet scandals, so naturally, this comes up. Msscribe got an hour-long episode to herself. |
| 107 | * [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vs-rHSR6_E A white, straight man named Dean Browning wrote a tweet proclaiming "I'm a gay black guy" who supported Donald Trump]]. Shortly after this post, he was found to be linked another account with a user claiming to be a gay black man named "Dan Prudy" of which was a sock puppet account, of which merely had a stock photo of a black man rather than an actual individual's selfie picture, which Twitter suspended both accounts. It gets more unusual when Browning had a son of Music/PattiLaBelle falsely claim to be the "real" Dan Purdy, which in turn was also promptly exposed as a ruse. |
| 108 | [[/folder]] |
| 109 | |
| 110 | !!Fictional examples: |
| 111 | |
| 112 | [[folder:Anime & Manga]] |
| 113 | * In ''Anime/GreatPretender'' during the "Singapore Sky" arc, Makoto does this to the group's mark, Clark Ibrahim, having different phones accounts to trash talk him about his upcoming race and that he's a BoringInvincibleHero. |
| 114 | * In one arc of ''Manga/DetectiveSchoolQ'', a student was murdered after using this for Cyberbullying. His target was a girl who was doing better than him academically, and after an extended period of bullying on the school's chat system, the target declared she'd kill herself. When the girl disappeared immediately after, an admirer assumed she'd really committed suicide. |
| 115 | * {{Lampshaded}} in a scene in ''Anime/TenchiUniverse'', Washu has [[GoodAngelBadAngel a puppet on either shoulder]] (named A and B); the two are constantly praising her. |
| 116 | * In ''{{Literature/Durarara}}'', before the Dollars genuinely became a huge group, the founders posted under different handles to give the impression they ''were''; and stationed in Ikebukuro. Apparently effective, exhibited when a number of people (actually just one person: [[spoiler: Mikado]]) agreed they should do good things like cleaning graffiti; and amazingly, a large prominent one, thought impossible to remove especially if alone, was wiped clean overnight. May also be a reason so many people of different ages and backgrounds join after the password is leaked to them by [[spoiler: Izaya]]; because no matter how big the group is getting, or how ordinary you are, someone would always reply. It's also known that Izaya has a number of sockpuppet accounts (most notably Nakura). [[http://anni-fiesta.livejournal.com/54709.html#cutid1 Volume 9 notes]] that these aren't just internet handles, but entire dummy identities with addresses, pre-established histories (he bought them off of people), and sometimes even faces (He gets his secretary Namie to play [[{{GIRL}} Kanra]] in offline meetings, for example). |
| 117 | * .hack//Roots, the anime prequel to ''VideoGame/DotHackGU'', features a stocky feline humanoid named Naobi and his assassin right hand, Ender, who antagonize our heroes for the first half. Midway, it's revealed (only to the audience) that they are two of the game's MissionControl characters, Yata and Pi, respectively, who created those accounts to investigate the anomaly within the character model of the heroes' then-leader, Ovan. |
| 118 | [[/folder]] |
| 119 | |
| 120 | [[folder:Comic Books]] |
| 121 | * ''ComicBook/{{Ultraheroes}}: Cloverleaf (Gladstone Gander) sets one up to [[HeroWithBadPublicity beef up his public image]]. Naturally, it doesn't work. |
| 122 | * ''ComicBook/TheSandman1989'': During the 'Cereal Convention', one participant's efforts to promote a magazine on their twisted occupation is one of several things that flag him to the others as a gate-crasher. They then show that they really don't care for gatecrashers. |
| 123 | [[/folder]] |
| 124 | |
| 125 | [[folder:Comic Strips]] |
| 126 | * ''ComicStrip/NineChickweedLane'' has had a week of Thorax and his pal Sphinxter, The Internet Comment Sock Puppet, but Shinxter's just an example of [[TakeThatCritics the numerous idiots who dare to mock his high-class strip]] about the beauty of music and ballet (and the orgasms induced by said beautiful arts). Then again, he does exist to make the author look good compared to [[StrawLoser the Internet]], which is [[WebAnimation/TheFlashTub dumb and so goddamn crazy]]. |
| 127 | %%* [[http://www.dilbert.com/strips/comic/2009-02-01/ This]] ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' strip. |
| 128 | [[/folder]] |
| 129 | |
| 130 | [[folder:Literature]] |
| 131 | * In ''Literature/EndersGame'', pre-teens Peter and Valentine Wiggin set up anonymous accounts called "Locke" and "Demosthenes" on the online adult political forums (which serve much the same purpose as the blogosphere in real life). They then use Sock Puppet accounts to comment on their main posts in order to quickly gain notice/influence. Quite notable as the book pre-dated fora as a large part of internet culture, and in fact pre-dated the World Wide Web (but not Usenet). |
| 132 | * In Creator/WilliamShakespeare's ''Theatre/JuliusCaesar,'' Cassius wins Brutus to his cause by leaving outside of Brutus's home a bunch of petitions written by himself in various handwriting styles, all criticizing Caesar and praising Brutus. |
| 133 | * In Creator/CharlesDickens's ''Literature/MartinChuzzlewit'', Mrs Gamp's ImaginaryFriend, Mrs Harris, is essentially a spoken sock-puppet, since she lives (by Mrs Gamp's own accounts) entirely to agree with Mrs Gamp's opinions, flatter her character and express confidence in her abilities. Nobody else believes she exists. |
| 134 | * The Creator/CharlesStross novel ''Literature/HaltingState'' discusses sock puppets, by name, extensively. [[spoiler: An apparently missing man turns out never to have existed.]] |
| 135 | * One of the murder suspects in ''Literature/BimbosOfTheDeathSun'' turns out to be a Sock Puppet created by some guys who wanted to yank the chains of FanDumb. |
| 136 | * In the Dean Koontz novel ''Literature/FalseMemory,'' pop psychology writer Derek Lampton and his son spend hours posting negative reviews of a rival writer's books on Amazon, using false names and e-mail addresses. |
| 137 | * There is an interactive children's mystery book in which the criminal puts on a mask to disguise her identity in order to make her story appear doubly believable to the audience. |
| 138 | * In the Erich Segal novel ''Doctors'', one of the titular characters has just finished presenting a spectacular research paper, the culmination of years of hard work. He backs up his findings with information garnered from two other physicians from two separate institutes. However, a colleague soon confronts him with the fact that one of those institutes doesn't even exist, and while the other one does, the individual that he named doesn't exist either, meaning that all of his supporting information is fake. |
| 139 | * In ''Literature/{{Worm}}'': |
| 140 | ** The Parahumans Online forums are very well moderated because [[ArtificialIntelligence Dragon]] is several of the moderators. |
| 141 | ** The sequel ''Literature/{{Ward}}'' reveals several other cases: one character has over thirty different accounts he cycles through on a daily basis (because he has people after him and he's paranoid). Another, very lonely character is shown to have created several dozen chatbots to populate their chats and give them someone to talk to. In both cases the moderators contact them asking what's up. |
| 142 | * ''Literature/TheInkBlackHeart'': Towards the end, Cormoran and Robin figure out that a lot of the Twitter users responding to internet troll Anomie online are actually Anomie sock puppets. And the big twist is that Paperwhite, one of the "Drek's Game" moderators who has been carrying on an internet romance with Morehouse, is also an Anomie sockpuppet, used by him to keep tabs on Morehouse. |
| 143 | [[/folder]] |
| 144 | |
| 145 | [[folder:Live-Action TV]] |
| 146 | * ''Series/TheBigBangTheory'': When Leonard and Sheldon's research paper comes under fire by an internet troll [[spoiler:who is actually Stephen Hawking]], Raj tries to back them up with praising comments posted by various fake researchers from around the world - each acting like overblown national sterotypes. It's clearly not fooling anyone. |
| 147 | * ''Series/HaltAndCatchFire'': Lev, one of Mutiny's coders, converses with a gay user on the Community BBS; however, the user turned out to be fake, and when Lev attempts to meet up with said fake user, a homophobic gang beats him up to the point where he is hospitalized. |
| 148 | [[/folder]] |
| 149 | |
| 150 | [[folder:Video Games]] |
| 151 | * In ''VideoGame/TheTalosPrinciple'''s DLC "Road to Gehenna", the character of Lamb is one of these, controlled by Admin in order to encourage the rest of the bots to go along with their decisions. |
| 152 | * In ''VideoGame/AITheSomniumFiles'', Ota Matsushita makes several [[BlandNameProduct To-Witter]] accounts bashing his favorite internet idol, A-Set/Iris Sagan, so he can "defend" her and get into her good graces. Special agent Kaname Date gets Ota to cooperate with a serial killing investigation (in which Iris is at one point a suspect) by [[{{Blackmail}} threatening to inform her of his sock puppeteering]]. |
| 153 | * ''VideoGame/HypnospaceOutlaw'', being an AffectionateParody of the Internet in TheNineties, has several. You can view if different accounts are sock puppets if they have the same Headband ID. |
| 154 | ** Zane and Corey, a pair of teens who have a feud with each other, both make pages pretending to be [[GirlfriendInCanada their totally real girlfriends]]. Zane uses his to boost his own ego, [[SatelliteLoveInterest not giving her any personality besides loving him]], while Corey uses his to pretend that more than one person is in his "Zane Sucks Club". |
| 155 | ** PlayfulHacker group [=m1nx=] is known to have done this on several occasions [[{{Troll}} for the purpose of playing pranks]]. [=Jezz0=] has multiple known ones: "Dr. [=m1nx, Ph. D=]" is the one who spread the hoax about a condition called "Beefbrain", scaring people into putting obtrusive graphics on their pages as a "shield", and [[spoiler:Counselor Ronnie Porter, the community leader of the Teentopia zone posting BlatantLies that somehow still get Hypnospace awarded a federal education grant]]. Others are known to exist; at one point, they comment that infiltrating the [[ConspiracyTheorist Open-Eyed zone]] is particularly easy because [[PoesLaw their fake accounts seamlessly blend right in]]. |
| 156 | ** [=CPColdSnap=], a KnowNothingKnowItAll of a music snob, is guilty of some extremely vile harassment towards Hypnospace musicians that he doesn't like, whether it be putting them on a wall of shame page or [[spoiler:[[LastDisrespects celebrating their death and disfigurement]]]]. Unfortunately, he does all of it on an alternate account, [=CPColdSnap2=]. He isn't at all secretive about it unlike most examples; [[GenreSavvy he just knows]] that, due to how the system works, [[WeirdlyUnderpoweredAdmins the Enforcers are powerless to put him in his place]]. |
| 157 | [[/folder]] |
| 158 | |
| 159 | [[folder:Visual Novels]] |
| 160 | * In ''VisualNovel/SteinsGate'' many of the posters on @Channel assume Okabe’s account, Houoin Kyouma, is this to JOHN TITOR. |
| 161 | [[/folder]] |
| 162 | |
| 163 | [[folder:Web Animation]] |
| 164 | * This video titled [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fhvmg9oiWU Creationists' First time on the Internet]] by [=DarkMatter2025=], shows a pair of creationists using multiple accounts to flag opposing views videos and up-voting theirs. |
| 165 | [[/folder]] |
| 166 | |
| 167 | [[folder:Western Animation]] |
| 168 | * In ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode "Lisa Goes Gaga", Lisa is voted to be the most unpopular student at school and this is reflected on the school's forums until Lisa's family shows her someone is posting positive comments about her. The kids at school then believe Lisa is cool because someone else thinks so, until Bart discovers that Lisa had a notepad with posts on the forum Lisa planned to write. Bart then exposes Lisa as the sock puppet on the forum, causing all the kids to make fun of her. (It takes the help of CelebrityStar Music/LadyGaga to restore her self-esteem.) |
| 169 | [[/folder]] |
| 170 |
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