We’ve talked before about my negative view of fake social media profiles and sock puppets, and how I think impersonation of someone (whether well-known or just pretending to be a real person other than yourself) is unacceptable. See: Spoofing David Fisher and Anonymous comment vs IMPERSONATION

It’s one thing to consistently use an internet ‘handle’, a nom de plume or pseudonym to try to separate your ‘real life’ from your web persona. It’s another to be a fake or a sock puppet … and yet another to inhabit social media using fake profiles (‘following’ or ‘liking’ your enemies in order to stalk them — see: Stalker Cameron Slater: new year, same bullsh*t)

The new (to me) concept of a ‘cabal’ of people posting or participating in discussion online under a joint pseudonym is worth noting. I first became aware of the practice last year when the fabulous, clever, funny parody Twitter account @DrBrash was revealed as the work of two men — in my view, comic geniuses.

Since then, in response to my question on the matter, twitterer @BarnsleyBill (apparently widely seen as NZ Truth promotions manager Russell Beaumont) was revealed as ‘sometimes Russell Beaumont but sometimes one of three or four other people’. Likewise, again with apparent (but not proven) NZ Truth connections, someone piped up claiming to be “the representative of ‘the cabal’ operating” the fake Fisher twitter account — a group that put so much energy into impersonating NZ Herald journo David Fisher.

From an Apple Insider report … Apple patents reliable social networking system that tracks ‘stalkers’ and ‘spammers’

A patent granted to Apple today details a social networking system that can reliably identify friends, as well as “stalkers” and “spammers.” Under the system, a user with a relationship to another user can enter a “friend state.” However, rejections of friend requests increase a user’s “stalker count” — a user rejected a number of times within a specified time period will no longer be able to make a friend request to that same user. Likewise, a “spammer count” is created by limiting the number of friend requests one user can make within a specified time period, making it possible to prevent additional friend requests for the remainder of the time period. [via Apple Insider]

So … a computer logarithm would attempt to work out from someone’s behaviour online, and people’s response to it (e.g. rejecting their friend requests) whether they appear to be a ‘spammer’ or a ‘stalker’ — looking at things like multiple (rejected) friend requests to the same user.

It got me thinking about another aspect of the social dynamic of social media.

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