I’m writing this short post because I’ve seen this happen before, and recently I’ve seen it crop up in a few places. Most people don’t know what an Internet Sockpuppet is and I wanted to both explain it and warn people about it.

I’ve reached a point where I can spot sockpuppetry a mile away, pardon the cliche. They can be cheeky or vicious. But never sincere. I’ve recently suspected it on social media like facebook and twitter. The one thing about someone who practices sockpuppetry is that they usually take it a little too far.

And, just for the record, this has nothing to do with author pen names. Sockpuppetry is completely different.

This was taken from wiki, in full. The link is here.

A sockpuppet is an online identity used for purposes of deception. The term—a reference to the manipulation of a simple hand puppet made from a sock—originally referred to a false identity assumed by a member of an internet community who spoke to, or about himself while pretending to be another person.[1] The term now includes other uses of misleading online identities, such as those created to praise, defend or support a third party or organization.[2] A significant difference between the use of a pseudonym[3] and the creation of a sockpuppet is that the sockpuppet poses as an independent third-party unaffiliated with the puppeteer.

The term “sockpuppet” was used as early as July 9, 1993[4] but did not become common in USENET groups until 1996. The first Oxford English Dictionary example of the term, defined as “a person whose actions are controlled by another; a minion,” is taken from U.S. News and World Report, March 27, 2000.[5]

Sockpuppetry is so common these days, Wikipedia even set its own standards on this page.