Beyond Verification| Inauthentic Authenticity: Astroturfing to Generate True Affect Using Fakery

Abstract

Astroturfing is a process of manipulating authenticity to legitimize and give the appearance of sincerity to the communication activities of various organizations. This process fits into digital affective capitalism, in which affective communications lead to the creation of profiles that seem authentic and the circulation of discourse that seems sincere. Building on a critical review of the literature, we develop a matrix model that situates online astroturfing practices on a continuum between authentic and inauthentic publics, with organizations engaging in either sincere or insincere discourse and actions. We position online astroturfing within the broader question about the development of a digital affective economy. Using three cases, we revisit our model to show the forms of digital affective labor used to construct inauthenticity.