Cyberturfing – Shrouded Perils It Poses And The Applicable Law

'Cyberturfing' is the online equivalent of the off-line 'astroturfing', a term said to be coined by a US Senator back in 1985 and is understood to be a type of deceptive marketing or practice designed by marketers to create a false impression that a campaign has developed authentically and organically but in reality is powered by someone else behind the scenes¹. Classic astroturfing involves the use of paid agents to falsely represent popular sentiment surrounding a product or a service². As a result, consumers 'follow the herd'³ as against the authentic grass root movements which operate at local level with community volunteers having a primary goal to support a local or a global cause considered good for the society or environment⁴.