It seems that we are collectively failing to perform 'Turing test' on
virtual entities. The difficulty of distinguishing between actual and
virtual humans is a testament to fundamental inadequacy of so-called
'social' networks. Or maybe it's a feature, pigeonholing humans into
restrictive templates that can be easily mimicked by virtual constructs.
A more interesting question is ... WTF is 'fake persona'? How can
electronic representation be a fake persona? As opposed to what? With
'fake news' meaning 'unauthorized propaganda', do 'fake personas' mean
'unauthorized influencers'?
The use of fake online personas has a long history in Israel. In the
mid-two-thousands, an Israeli company called Terrogence used them to
infiltrate suspected jihadi chat rooms. Later, Terrogence experimented
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