What is a Sock Puppet Website?
A sock puppet website is a website created to support an artificial personality, known in Internet slang as a sock puppet, shadow puppet, or glove puppet. While few sock puppets go to the length of making websites, preferring to remain in the shadows of bulletin boards, blog comments, and other forums, some do, and are sometimes capable of deceiving otherwise highly educated and knowledgeable individuals. A sock puppet website can be used to create the illusion that a false personality is real, advance a viral marketing campaign, as part of an astroturfing effort, or to undermine people with opposing views. The origins of the sock puppet name are probably a reference to the ease with which a sock puppet can be made. A real sock puppet can be as simple as a sock placed over the hand, but it becomes an alternate personality controlled by the user. On the medium of the Internet, a sock puppet is a false or joke account created by a regular user, usually for malicious purposes. A user may
