Samsung distances itself from astroturfing controversy; blames PR agency

Samsung recently faced allegations that it was involved in under-the-table tactics for promotion. New reports now indicate that the claims were true. Samsung has admitted that developers were in fact offered money to mention its developer competition on the popular developer community Stack Overflow, according to The Verge.

In a statement issued to the source, the company has been vocal in it’s condemnation of the actions. Samsung “clearly” notes that offering money to developers is “against Samsung Electronics corporate policy and the contracted agency responsible for planning this promotional activity was made aware of this fact.”

The company has said that it was unaware of the situation before it was brought to light in the media, and as soon as it found out about the PR firm’s tactics, Samsung cancelled the planned activity. This is in direct reference to the charge of astroturfing, where money is paid for content in the form of Internet comments, blog posts, tweets and other forms of communication. The company further said, “We remain committed to engaging in transparent and honest communications with consumers.”

Samsung issued a statement clarifying the astroturfing issue

Soon after Samsung issued its statement damning the entire affair, James Yoo, COO of Fluu, the PR firm responsible for the scandal, posted an apology to the developer that broke the news. In the reportedly candid statement, Yoo says that the tactics employed by Fllu were “misguided, unethical, and wrong.” He also admits that his earlier post, which claimed that Samsung was not a client, “may have been misleading.” In the post, the Fllu executive explains that the company was working on Samsung’s promotion for an agency that worked for the Korean smartphone maker. That post seems to have been removed from the developer’s blog, though.

Astroturfing is not an uncommon practice. In the way that Fllu is an agency working for another agency reporting to Samsung, many such campaigns are carried out with several degrees of separation existing between the company and the agencies carrying out its nefarious activities. Online forums are one of the prime targets for paid content being masked as innocent communication.

Unfortunately, while the practice is common, catching the same is not so easy. The most recent example of astroturfing being caught cropped up when Samsung Taiwan admitted to paying students to put up negative posts about its rival company HTC. While Samsung’s corporate policy is undoubtedly committed to “transparent and honest” communications, it seems evident that the PR agencies it employs do not share the same “views”.