Sockpuppet (Internet) - Notable Public Examples

Notable Public Examples

• Between 2000 and 2003, John Lott, author of More Guns, Less Crime, made numerous posts under the sockpuppet name "Mary Rosh." "Rosh" praised Lott's views and disputed with his critics on Usenet, posting laudatory reviews of Lott's books and panning those of his rivals. Lott admitted he had used the name "Mary Rosh" to defend himself but claimed the book reviews were written by his son and wife.
• Lee Siegel, a writer for The New Republic magazine, was suspended for defending his articles and blog comments under the user name "Sprezzatura." In one such comment, "Sprezzatura" defended Siegel's bad reviews of Jon Stewart: "Siegel is brave, brilliant and wittier than Stewart will ever be."
• In 2006, a top staffer for then-US Congressman Charlie Bass (R-NH) was caught posing as a "concerned" supporter of Bass's opponent Democrat Paul Hodes on several liberal New Hampshire blogs. Using the identities "IndieNH" or "IndyNH," the aide argued that Democrats might be wasting their time and money supporting Hodes, because Bass was "unbeatable."
• In 2006, American reporter Michael A. Hiltzik was suspended from posting to his blog on the LA Times (entitled "The Golden State") after he admitted "posting there, as well as on other sites, under false names". He used the pseudonyms to attack online conservative nemeses like Hugh Hewitt and L.A. prosecutor Patrick Frey (who eventually exposed him)."
• In January 2007, Peter Ragone, the press secretary of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, admitted that he had posted pro-Newsom comments to the blog SFist as "Byorn" or "John Nelson" (a friend). Ragone said "he answered Newsom's critics using others' names because being online 'was fun – it's where people are having fun."
• In 2007, the CEO of Whole Foods, John Mackey, was discovered to have posted as "Rahodeb" on the Yahoo Finance Message Board, extolling his own company and predicting a dire future for its rival, Wild Oats Markets, while concealing his relationship to both companies.
• On January 13, 2009, Ben Grower, a councillor from Bournemouth, England, was exposed by the Bournemouth Daily Echo for repeatedly posting comments praising himself and fellow Labour councillors on the newspaper's website using a number of sockpuppets including the screen name "Omegaman." When questioned, Grower was initially ambiguous but later admitted the truth of the allegations, saying "I have done nothing against the law. And probably next time I will just use a different pseudonym."
• In April 2010 British historian Orlando Figes was discovered to have written critical reviews of books by professional rivals on the Amazon.com website under the names "orlando-birkbeck" and "historian."
• In April 2011, the American cartoonist Scott Adams admitted using the name "PlannedChaos" to pose as one of his fans on the link-sharing sites Reddit and MetaFilter.
• In September 2011, Johann Hari, a leading columnist for the British newspaper The Independent, publicly apologized for having used a pseudonym, David Rose, with Wikipedia screen name David r of Meth productions, to add positive material to the Wikipedia article about himself and negative material to Wikipedia articles about people with whom he had had disputes.
• In September 2012, British crime author R. J. Ellory admitted to using fake usernames on Amazon.com to write glowing reviews of his own works and bad reviews of those of two competitors.