sock puppet

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Wikipedia Just Busted Gang of 'Black Hat' Editors

381 shady editor accounts banned in Operation Orangemoody

(Newser) - Expect a little less misinformation while browsing Wikipedia today. The website has deleted 381 sock puppet accounts—those of paid users who edit articles on a subject to which they have some affiliation—in a bust for "black hat editing." Fusion reports that an investigation, dubbed "Orangemoody"...

Wikipedia Accuses PR Firm of Slanting Entries

It orders 'Wiki-PR' to stop editing pages

(Newser) - The foundation that runs Wikipedia is calling out a PR firm that it believes is in the business of biasing Wikipedia entries for its clients. Its first hint? The firm is called "Wiki-PR." The Wikimedia Foundation sent a "cease and desist" letter to the firm, ordering it...

1 in 12 Facebook Users Is Bogus

Company's latest estimate pegs duplicate, unwanted accounts at 8.7%

(Newser) - Obviously, Facebook has a lot of users. But how many of them are real? The company's quarterly earnings report, issued last week, revealed that the answer is most, but not as many as previously believed. About 8.7% of Facebook accounts, or around 83.09 million, are bogus, the...

Military's New Project: Social Media Propaganda

Centcom has put out contract for 'sock puppet' software

(Newser) - The US military has hired a California company to develop a program that will let it operate a host of bogus social media accounts, in the hopes of covertly influencing online discourse and spreading pro-American propaganda overseas, the Guardian reports. This “online persona management service” would allow each user...

Webster's New Words: Frenemy, Staycation

(Newser) - Merriam-Webster will make 100 additions to its Collegiate dictionary this year, and many may sound familiar, the AP reports. “These are not new words in the language, by any means,” said the publisher. An expert elaborates: They've “been around for a while but for some reason they...

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