Sock Puppetry

Pseudonyms and other false identities have been used for centuries. However, the rise of the Internet has created public forums in which people speak their minds and at the same time wish to remain anonymous. On the Internet, the new form of false identifies is termed sock puppetry.

A sock puppet is a false identity used online in order to hide true identity. It is a form of deception. The term sock puppetry comes from the use of puppets made from socks. The puppets were characters in some form of “show.” On the Internet, the term came to be applied to people who would assume a false identity and then join an Internet group. The term has been extended to include people who use false identities on the Internet in order to deceive others. The deception may be acts which praise, blame, defend, oppose, support, attack, defame, ridicule, or otherwise criticize an individual or an organization.

A pseudonym is a name used to protect an identity. Authors have long used pen names for various reasons. Benjamin Franklin, George Sands, Walt Whitman, Anthony Burgess, and other writers have used pseudonyms. However, a sock puppeteer pretends to be someone who is not a member of a group to which they are really connected. Or, he or she falsely pretends to be sympathetic to [Page 854]a group in order to be disruptive. Some Internet social communities will expel or block sock puppets when exposed.

The first use of the term sock puppet was on July 9, 1993. The term came into general use by 1996. At first, the Oxford English Dictionary defined a “sock puppet” as a person who is controlled by someone else. The idea of a sock puppeteer as a minion was an extension of the term that was published in 2000 by U.S. News and World Report.

The Internet has created many opportunities for online voting. Unscrupulous people will create sock puppets in order to stuff online ballot boxes. In other cases, a sock puppeteer may create multiple identities to support arguments, voice opinions, or otherwise create the online illusion that many people support the sock puppeteer. This practice is called a “Sybil attack” after Sybil Dorsett, which was a pseudonym for Shirley Ardell Manson, used by Cornelia B. Wilber in her 1973 book, Sybil. Wilber, a psychoanalyst, treated “Sybil” for multiple personality disorders. Those who use “Sybil attacks” are using multiple personalities in order to anonymously attack others online.