Sockpuppet Accounts Article - Originally Published in The Beacon

Don't ask me when, however... lol.  Since I can't find it online, I'm posting my last 2 articles here.  Enjoy.
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Depending on how long you’ve been on the Internet, you may or may not have heard the term “sockpuppet”, the slightly silly term for an Internet identity created to say something you don’t want ascribed to your actual Internet handle.

Sockpuppet accounts can be used for a variety of “nefarious” uses on the Internet, and very often these uses are what lead to them being a hated form of communication on forums and blogs across the ‘net.

Oftentimes, one person will have multiple sockpuppet accounts and start arguments with themselves on controversial subjects. This is a relatively easy way to incite sympathy or arguments online. After all, if no one knows that all of those people arguing with you are you, nice people are going to come to your aid.

The main contention the people of the Internet seem to have with sockpuppets comes back to the idea that life online should follow similar rules as life in the real world. So the Golden Rule should apply along with the caveat “if you’re not willing to say it as ‘yourself’, don’t say it at all.”

This logic is faulty, however. It presupposes that the Internet is the same as Real Life or that it should be.

The Internet has changed the world. This isn’t an argument, it’s a fact. Social media has changed the way we interact, online shopping has changed the way we consume, up-to-the-minute documentation has changed the way we understand the news. Who is to say that sockpuppets aren’t the logical evolution of how we as the public interact online.

There are multiple Twitter accounts for fictional characters like Lord Voldemort or Darth Vader. Since these characters don’t have access to the Internet, we have to assume that their accounts are being run by fans. This doesn’t strike me as that different from a sockpuppet account. After all, there are 17 accounts ascribed to the Dark Lord – they can’t all be him. Yet no one comments on these accounts, accusing their owners of acting in a cowardly manner and demanding that they post under their true identities.

One of the biggest issues with sockpuppet accounts is linked with authors anonymously reviewing and commenting on their own books.

When authors comment on their own books anonymously, leaving glowing recommendations and five-star reviews, it supposedly throws the entire system out of whack.

This issue, which has been occurring with frequency since a 2004 glitch in Amazon’s system revealed anonymous poster’s true identities, has been hailed as “dishonest” and can be seen as a breach in the contract between the author and their readers.

However, by commenting as readers on their own books, authors aren’t breaching their author-reader relationship, they are in fact just taking the next step in our social interaction.

The advent of the Internet and its ability to break down previously constructed social barriers has completely changed how we interact with the world around us. And if that means that some people would rather remain anonymous in order to express their true opinions or incite argument, then I say more power to them.