Tarred and feathered

We should have seen it coming. With thousands tweeting and networking for social change, and hacktivists using their skills to expose powerful entities, it was only a matter of time until the megacorps put more concerted effort into using these avenues for their own interests.

Thankfully, big name organisations are often so poorly versed in the basics of social networking that their attempts to gain favour draw attention only to their own incompetence.

Their attempts to gain favour draw attention only to their own incompetence.

Lezette Engelbrecht, online features editor, ITWeb

News broke last week that an oil company and its backers had created fake Twitter accounts to rally support for the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry tar sands oil from Canada to Texas. It perfectly illustrates their ignorance of a tool that has become a major means of undermining the powers that be.

The Rainforest Action Network (RAN) was alerted to some suspect tweets last week, and quickly fingered the American Petroleum Institute (API) and its lobbyists for astroturfing. The activist group exposed API's attempts to falsify public support for the pipeline, which will result in immense environmental damage and risk more of the kinds of spills seen in the US recently. These include the roughly 3.8 million litres of oil spilled into the Kalamazoo River, in Michigan, last year, and the 151 000-litre spill in the Yellowstone River, in July.

Plans to extend the current pipeline by around 2 700km have become a fiercely contested issue, and many Twitter followers have been using the #tarsands hashtag to engage in debate. Last Wednesday, RAN detected that a number of Twitter handles had all tweeted the same message: “#tarsands the truth is out!”, followed by a link to the API Web page. The same accounts soon sent another link, to the Nebraska Energy Forum - an API-sponsored group strongly campaigning for the pipeline.

The handles, which included a “regular old Star Wars fan” who cares about the environment; an “average mother of a toddler”; a fitness instructor with a few exotic pets; and a Pizza Hut manager, have since been branded fakes by Twitter.

The accounts had been around for less than a week, and despite having interests in science fiction, pet snakes, and parenting, these individuals seemed to tweet only about the pipeline. The so-called pizza chain manager even claimed, "If you like pizza you should also like #keystonexl and the sweet #oilsands it benefits #nebraska”.

The mining of tar sands has attracted serious criticism from environmental groups and ordinary citizens for various reasons. The sands contain a mix of clay, sand, water and a dense form of oil, and have become an alternative fuel source thanks to higher oil prices and improved extraction methods.

The thick, heavy oil also has to undergo significant treatment to get it to a usable consistency, which consumes huge amounts of water and energy. The processing of tar sands produces around 15% more greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) than regular oil production, and has been identified as the largest contributor in Canada - a staggering 40 million tonnes of CO2 every year.

Why these oil deposits are even being considered in a time of looming climate change and advances in renewable energy boggles the mind.

It seems tar sands players like API are fully aware of how shaky their case is, given its desperate attempts at boosting support for the pipeline.

But what oil companies and other powerful enterprises don't understand is that their usual tactics don't wash in this terrain. In the social media space, it's not about the number of votes bought or high-placed individuals in one's pocket. Companies can't abuse their economic muscle to gain more exposure for their views. In Twitterverse, it's the credibility of the message, not the size of the megaphone, which decides how one's received.

If you mess with the social networking crowd, chances are you will not only be found out, but hung out to dry. All API achieved was create a lot of traffic about what a fraud it is, resulting in the exact opposite of its initial intentions. It also did additional damage by showing its ignorance of the social networking space, and generally coming across like a deceptive bully.

Let's face it; these groups are used to being able to push people around. It's always been easy, given their money and access. But in the new sphere of influence, where authenticity rules, those who aren't upfront about their intentions are either avoided, ridiculed or despised.

What is worrying, however, is that every public flop will see these companies learn how to better leverage social media tools. Their tactics will improve, their lies grow more artful, and soon they may actually manage to mislead a fair deal of people. Watchdog bodies will have to exercise extra vigilance as companies with dodgy practices get more skilled at managing their image.

Social networks have given people more of a say on issues that affect them than ever before. These platforms can help to guard honesty and transparency, and hold the powerful accountable, but they can also be used subversively. Companies like API realise the information floodgates are unlikely to close anytime soon, and the thinking seems to be: “If you can't beat, 'em, join 'em.”

What it needs to grasp, however, is that if you're going to join the game, best spend some time learning the rules.