The praxis of a company producing wrong Internet remarks on message boards by praising its own products and flapping down others is unluckily turning to be progressively hackneyed. Today, it was disclosed that Samsung had been smashed with a rather bountiful fine by the Taiwan government for those forms of activities, thereby which Samsung has gained the name of “astroturfing”.
The fine, as keyed out by the Taiwan Fair Trade Association, ranges in the amount of NT$10 million, or USD $341,037. In its official statement, the government stated that Samsung employed a third party company, which goes by the name of OpenTide, who then paid off a great number of individuals to post comments on the message board forums that both appraised Samsung’s offerings like the Galaxy S III as well as being decisive of several other smart-phones created by its rivals.
The fine will promisingly deter other companies from putting into use the same maneuvers as a merchandising tool. In an official statement, Samsung’s Taiwan agencies arrogate they were totally “let down” by the government’s activities. The statement also appended that, “Samsung Electronics Taiwan is retrospecting the decision with kid gloves on and will adopt all essential measures to assist our repute as a company which respects its customer.”
In the beginning of this year, Microsoft was incriminated of taking into lead a movement to send positive scuttlebutt on the Internet forums regarding its offering, the Xbox One console, but the company responsively abnegated those allegations.
