Sock puppet

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A Sock puppet is an online identity assumed in order to manage perceptions. The term— referring to a simple hand puppet made from a sock—originally referred to a false identity assumed by a participant in an internet community who addressed or wrote about her/himself while pretending to be another person.[1] The term now includes other uses of misleading online identities, such as those created to praise, defend, support or criticise, attack or oppose a third party or organization,[2] or to circumvent a suspension or ban from a website or other online space. A significant difference between the use of a pseudonym and the creation of a sockpuppet is that the sockpuppet poses as an independent or partially independent third-party unaffiliated with the puppeteer.


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Notes

  1. Definition of sockpuppet WordSpy.com, accessed 15 August 2012
  2. Brad Stone The Hand That Controls the Sock Puppet Could Get Slapped New York Times July 16, 2007, accessed 15 August 2012.