Dr. Yang

1. Social Network Doping:
Buying Influence Online
and Its Cultural Implications
Dr. Hsin-Yen Yang
Department of Communication Studies
Member of the Institute for New Media Studies
Fort Hays State University

2. A short bio….
• Born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan
• Ph.D. in Media Studies, University of Iowa
• Have taught Media and Society, Public Relations, Advertising, Oral
Communication, Intercultural Communication, etc.
• Research interests: Critical Cultural Studies, Critical Discourse Analysis
(of online fan discourse), Pop Culture and Politics, etc. Currently
conducting research on the Commodification of Likes/ Social Network
Doping with Dr. Douglas Schules, Rikkyo University, Tokyo.

3. Discussion
• How many of you own social media accounts?
• What do you do to boost your likes and followers?

4. New York Times Articles
• Friends, and Influence, for Sale Online by Nick Bilton,
April 20, 2014
• Fake Twitter Followers Become Multimillion-Dollar
Business by Nicole Perlroth, April 5, 2013

5. How Facebook Likes Get Bought And Sold
• “How Facebook Likes Get Bought And Sold” by Martha
Mendoza, AP, March, 2014
• Italian security researchers and bloggers Andrea Stroppa and
Carla De Micheli estimated in 2013 that sales of fake Twitter
followers have the potential to bring in $40 million to $360
million to date, and that fake Facebook activities bring in
$200 million a year.

7. In China
• In China, micro-communication
dominates the new media markets.
• Sina Weibo, a microblog platform and
WeChat, an instant messaging service are
the two most popular social media
platforms in China
• The “zombie(-like) fans”

8. A seller provided his menu
• Buying followers on Sina Weibo (新浪微博):
• Zombie-like fans: 1,000 for 5 CNY ($0.81 USD) 僵尸粉5元1000个；
• Regular fans: 500 for 11 CNY ($1.77), 10,000 regular fans for 180 CNY ($29.00)
普通粉11元500个，180元1万个；
• Premium real-person fans: 100 fans for 4CNY ($0.64), 10,000 fans for 250 CNY ($40.25).
顶级真人粉4元100个，250元1万个；
• Superior active fans: 100 for 5 CNY ($0.80), 10,000 for 320 CNY ($51.52) 特级活跃粉：5
元100个，320元1万个；
• Active regional fans: 100 for 15 CNY ($2.42). 活跃地区粉15元100个。

9. The business of fake-followers
This menu indicates a hierarchy in the faking business:
the more “lively” and relevant (the regional) the accounts
appear to be, the more expensive they become. In contrast
of the zombies, the active fake followers are called “living
fans”.

10. The Chinese government
• In 2015, the Chinese government tried to crack down the
zombie accounts by enforcing real-name identification for
all new and existing social media accounts (Loras, 2015).
• This new regulation aims to eliminate the fake accounts and
is welcomed by marketing experts in China for its potential to
enhance the quality of online conversations about brands and
customers’ experience.

12. In the United States
• Federal Trade Commission provides guidelines
• While the Federal Trade Commission and several state
attorney generals have cracked down on fake
endorsements or reviews, they have not weighed in on
clicks. Meanwhile, hundreds of online businesses sell
clicks and social media accounts from around the world.

13. We Sell Likes Doc Com

15. The US State Department
• In 2013, the State Department, which has more than 400,000
likes and was recently most popular in Cairo, said it would
stop buying Facebook fans after its inspector general
criticized the agency for spending $630,000 to boost the
numbers.
• In one case, its fan tally rose from about 10,000 to more than
2.5 million. (Mendoza, AP, 2014)

16. Social Network Doping
• Lance Armstrong Oprah Interview: Doping Confession
to Winfrey After Years of Denial
• 2:04 (Is this cheating?)

17. Social Network Doping
• In discussing his reasons for doping in an interview with Oprah, Lance Armstrong
argued that he was not cheating “because cheating meant to gain unfair rival over a
foe, implying that all his rivals were also cheating” (Carroll, 2015).
• A similar theme is expressed in certain elements of the discourse about buying
metrics. In particular, there is the belief that because others are buying metrics it is
perfectly acceptable to purchase them as well; doing so is the only way to stay
competitive or relevant online.
• Because of these parallels, we will call the purchasing of social media metrics such
as followers or likes, retweets or favorites, “social network doping.”

18. The Need to Cheat
• According to Bell and Whaley (2009), “the need to cheat
arises out of the nature of power” (3).
• Book: Cheating: Gaining Advantage in Videogames by Mia
Consalvo

19. Is This Cheating?
• Two general perspectives on ethics include:
• Teleology: focuses on outcomes of actions as the basis of
moral reasoning. “Ends justify the means.”
• Deontology: a system of rights, obligations, and duties. This
approach is dependent upon certain obligations between
actors

21. Challenges and Opportunities to Existing
Theories
• Redefining Credibility
• Social Capital
• Social Trust
• Ethics?

22. Do you rely on online reviews?
• Amazon cracks down on fake reviews

23. Cultural Implication
• Social Media Star Essena O'Neill Takes a Stand Against
Living Life Online (Video)

25. New Media Philosophy
• “New media do not take us into uncharted waters, but
rather confront us with the deepest and oldest questions
of society and ecology: how to manage the relations
people have with themselves, others, and the natural
world.”
- Book description from John Durham Peters’ The Marvelous
Clouds: Toward a Philosophy of Elemental Media (May, 2015)

26. Trust in Modern Society
• Anthony Giddens (1990) has argued that trust is the
foundation of the institutions of modern society.

27. Social Network Doping and Democracy
• Status People: Fakers List.
https://fakers.statuspeople.com