2 ms·

I had to look up the meaning of "astroturfing." Never heard it before. Is it specific to North America?

Radix 17y ago
Probably since I've always understood it as a word play on phrase "grass roots", playing off of the fake astroturf grass used on American football fields.
raffi 17y ago
I first heard it years ago on Slashdot. It's a play on the term grass roots meaning a bottom up campaign started and supported by people who are genuinely passionate about a cause. Astroturfing means faking a grassroots effort.
ejames 17y ago
Yes. It comes from a combination of two terms: 1. Astroturf. This comes from the fake grass installed in a large covered sports stadium in Houston, Texas. The stadium was the home of a sports team called the Houston Astros, so the fake grassy turf was called astroturf. 2. Grassroots. In politics, "grassroots support" refers to support from individuals and/or small, independent groups. The analogy is that you get scattered support from the bottom up from small groups, like grass growing all around, rather than the support of a single large group like a big tree. So you combine these phrases to get "astroturfing" - fake grass, like astroturf, that is meant to give the appearance of widespread "grassroots" support. The term can be used more generally outside of politics to mean artificially creating the appearance that a person/thing is more popular with the general public than it really is. For example, I once read that during the Department of Justice's antitrust case against Microsoft over Internet Explorer, Microsoft hired a PR firm that proposed to send letters to newspapers across the country under different names, each letter written in support of Microsoft's position. This would give the appearance of widespread support and popularity for Microsoft, even though all the letters would actually come from a PR firm. That's astroturfing.

Radix 17y ago

Probably since I've always understood it as a word play on phrase "grass roots", playing off of the fake astroturf grass used on American football fields.

raffi 17y ago

I first heard it years ago on Slashdot. It's a play on the term grass roots meaning a bottom up campaign started and supported by people who are genuinely passionate about a cause. Astroturfing means faking a grassroots effort.

ejames 17y ago

Yes. It comes from a combination of two terms: 1. Astroturf. This comes from the fake grass installed in a large covered sports stadium in Houston, Texas. The stadium was the home of a sports team called the Houston Astros, so the fake grassy turf was called astroturf. 2. Grassroots. In politics, "grassroots support" refers to support from individuals and/or small, independent groups. The analogy is that you get scattered support from the bottom up from small groups, like grass growing all around, rather than the support of a single large group like a big tree. So you combine these phrases to get "astroturfing" - fake grass, like astroturf, that is meant to give the appearance of widespread "grassroots" support. The term can be used more generally outside of politics to mean artificially creating the appearance that a person/thing is more popular with the general public than it really is. For example, I once read that during the Department of Justice's antitrust case against Microsoft over Internet Explorer, Microsoft hired a PR firm that proposed to send letters to newspapers across the country under different names, each letter written in support of Microsoft's position. This would give the appearance of widespread support and popularity for Microsoft, even though all the letters would actually come from a PR firm. That's astroturfing.