“Socket puppetry,” in the online sense, is the practice of making anonymous comments about someone or something in which you have a professional interest. The most famous recent case of sock puppetry was perpetrated by John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods, who used a fake identity on Yahoo message boards for years to attack his competition and pump his company’s stock.
With that background, I point you to a FrontBurner post last month about Rep. Dan Branch’s horrible parking job at Love Field (and thanks again to the FrontBurnervian in the field who sent the pic). Here’s the first comment on that post, from someone using the handle “frequent flyer”:
Has this person parked at Love recently? They’re ALWAYS out of spots- I’ve used the end of the aisle a number of times (when it’s available) because there’s no signs prohibiting it. Must be a slow news day…
To be sure, this is a small matter — inconsiderate behavior on the part of an elected official (or someone driving that elected official’s car). But that comment from “frequent flyer,” I believe, is a case of sock puppetry. A tipster told me that the post was made by a senior Branch staff member. The IP address of the computer used to make the post appears to confirm it. The post definitely came from a Texas Lege computer.
I wanted to ask Candice Shapiro, Branch’s chief of staff, about this. She hasn’t returned my call or e-mail.
