Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission this week fined Korean conglomerate Samsung $340,000 for "astroturfing."
Specifically, the Taiwanese FTC said Samsung paid two "marketing firms" more than $100,000 to hire people to "highlight the shortcomings of competing products," engage in the "disinfection of negative news about Samsung products," positively review Samsung products and, (in a bizarre turn of phrase), do "palindromic Samsung product marketing," whatever that means.
[h=Wait, what's 'astroturfing'?]2[/h]Samsung was fined for paying a "large number of hired writers and designated employees" to post comments in online forums praising Samsung and criticizing competitors.
Astroturf is a brand of fake grass; "astroturfing" is a reference to a fake "grass-roots" movement.
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