Future casting influence capability in online social networks

Because the behaviour of accounts affects the perception of trust and legitimacy of the OSN’s user base, sock-puppet accounts are a serious threat to an OSN’s credibility and economic success. [...] On the one hand, they can legitimately operate within the terms of service and try to attract and then coordinate the collective behaviour of many independent people, hoping for the spontaneous emergence of a collective coordinated expression of belief. [...] Overall, the percentages of fake accounts seems small, but given the scale of OSN the hard numbers mean that current levels of malicious accounts could range in the tens of millions. [...] This use of fake accounts is for influence in which the identity of the account is used to deceive recipients as to the true source and intentions of a message’s origin. [...] Clearly, the great potential of fake OSN accounts represents a strategic capability to exert influence through the collective force of many individuals and the control of the information space.