Astroturfing
Definition
The practice of manufacturing the appearance of organic, grassroots community support using undisclosed, incentivized, or coordinated accounts to simulate authentic peer endorsement for a brand, product, or viewpoint. Named after AstroTurf artificial grass — engineered to look real.
Context
Reddit communities have developed sophisticated pattern recognition for astroturfing: account age checks, post history analysis, karma-to-posting-frequency ratios, and linguistic pattern detection. When communities expose astroturfing campaigns, the resulting threads frequently rank in search results for the brand name — creating a permanent, searchable record of the exposure.
Relevance to Reddit
Astroturfing is the most common and most dangerous Reddit marketing mistake. It is prohibited by the FTC's Fake Reviews and Testimonials rule (effective 2024), violates Reddit's Content Policy, and is increasingly detected by Reddit's automated systems and the community. Beyond compliance risk, it cannot produce the genuine community advocacy that makes Reddit valuable — temporary exposure cannot substitute for authentic trust.
