from Hacker News

Netflix using fake Twitter accounts to promote new movie

by holic on 12/28/18, 4:14 PM with 24 comments

• by metalchianti on 12/28/18, 4:41 PM

  Wow, not surprising to me.

  I noticed an explosion of Birdbox memes on social media yesterday. I hadn't heard of the movie and did some research. Mediocre reviews and the plot seemed like ordinary horror/thriller. Still, these memes were popping up everywhere. No way this was organic.

• by zerotolerance on 12/28/18, 5:24 PM

  Almost zero data here. Zero investigation or reference material. Almost no editorial. Only an arbitrary clickbait accusation. But it says "Netflix" so HN FP here we come. This is Obama "invading" West Texas and declaring martial law to take over a Walmart all over again.

• by cribbles on 12/28/18, 5:40 PM

  Would such a thing be legal, per FTC guidelines on social media endorsement? (Let's set aside whether Netflix is "really doing this" for a moment.)

  The FTC's Sponsorship Identification Rule requires influencers and marketers to "clearly and conspicuously disclose their relationship to brands when promoting or endorsing products through social media."[1] This is the reason you see hashtags like #ad on promoted posts from celebrities. Violations of this rule "can result in penalties far larger than any imposed to date by the FTC."[2]

  I'd think that creating phony, low-follower accounts _en masse_ to promote a product would not circumvent the rule, simply because these accounts don't belong to "influencers." But I don't know. Can anyone with a better legal grasp on this chime in?

  [1] https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2017/04/ftc-s...

  [2] https://www.allaboutadvertisinglaw.com/2018/01/fcc-revives-i...

• by paulpauper on 12/28/18, 4:28 PM

  A $110 billion company cannot be bothered to buy realistic looking shill accounts.

• by bengale on 12/28/18, 4:46 PM

  So they've hired some social media marketing company?

• by leowoo91 on 12/28/18, 5:16 PM

  Are we at the point just reading a tweet and believing it immediately? What if those accounts are created intentionally to create such tweet?

• by davesque on 12/28/18, 5:20 PM

  I guess they're thinking the ends justify the memes.

• by dustinmoorenet on 12/28/18, 5:14 PM

  I watched the movie last night and it was good for what it is. I wonder if Netflix wanted to jump start something they genuinely thought was good but was being buried by all the other things they are offering. Maybe they thought the ends justify the means if their costumers are entertained.

• by dx87 on 12/28/18, 4:54 PM

  "Suspiciously low tweet/follower count" seems like an awfully low bar to set for claiming that it's a bunch of bot accounts. Not everyone spends their life making posts on social media.

• by CM30 on 12/28/18, 5:34 PM

  Studios have been doing this sort of thing for years. Not too surprised Netflix would do the same.

  Hopefully they'll never got as far as making up a fake critic to promote the movie like Sony did with David Manning.

• by kuhhk on 12/28/18, 4:36 PM

  Counter-theory: a bot builder needs to test out his bot code, and used tweets about Bird Box movie as the test subject to shill for, hoping to drown amongst the other fans, rather than something that might get flagged.

  Seems just as plausible, if not more..