Astroturfing
Astroturfing is the practice of disguising an orchestrated campaign as a spontaneous grassroots movement, creating a false impression of independent public support.
How to recognise
The term plays on "grassroots": astroturf is fake grass. Where bot amplification inflates reach, astroturfing fabricates authenticity — manufacturing what looks like many ordinary people independently reaching the same view. Generative AI supercharges it by writing large volumes of distinct, human-sounding "individual" voices that are hard to tell apart from real ones.
The defence is to look past volume to origin: a sudden surge of similar sentiment, freshly created accounts, and repetitive framing are signals that apparent grassroots support may be manufactured.