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Phony grass roots??

Story: Caught Astroturfing: Bad Belkin Bayard Business..Total Replies: 7
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theBeez

Jan 21, 2009
3:03 AM EST 		Scott, both Astroturfing and phony grass roots are basically unknown in Europe AFIAK. A link to Wikipedia would help.
Scott_Ruecker

Jan 21, 2009
3:54 AM EST 		You got it, here it is..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing

I am adding an Editor's Note in the lead as well.

Scott
Scott_Ruecker

Jan 21, 2009
3:56 AM EST 		Paul also explains it a little in the beginning of the article too.
jezuch

Jan 21, 2009
3:24 PM EST 		Even regular grass roots are basically unknown here. At least in my language.
phsolide

Jan 21, 2009
11:22 PM EST 		My wife has worked in politics. When I explained to her what I objected to about Microsoft's behaviors, she snorted. Politicians, and campaign workers DO NOT BELIEVE in "grass roots". They believe that every "grass roots" campaign is something put together by a corporation, or more likely, one of those weird front non-profits you see in every election year: "This ad was paid for by the Keep Colorado Free Committee".

From her viewpoint, the only thing remarkable about MSFT's fake "grass roots" is that MSFT was clumsy enough to get caught doing it.
Scott_Ruecker

Jan 22, 2009
12:05 AM EST 		From what I can tell the only real grass roots campaigns that has ever happened in the US are the repealing of Prohibition and the Civil Rights Movement.

Other than that, zilch.
jdixon

Jan 22, 2009
5:49 AM EST 		I'm pretty sure the California proposition 13 was a grass roots campaign: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_13_(1978)
hkwint

Jan 24, 2009
4:08 PM EST
Quoting:phony grass roots are basically unknown in Europe AFIAK.


Let me coin 'Deceptive community driven' I know there are articles about this behaviour (In particular: Microsoft in the EU-software patent battle where Microsoft created a 'phony Small/Medium Business grassroot organization' in favour of software patents) written by European writers and I was eager to find out what words they use, but I can't find that article as of now.

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