Wikipedia has had a long history of problems with sockpuppetry. The Oxford English Dictionary defines the term without reference to the internet, as 'a person whose actions are controlled by another a minion' with a 2000 citation from U.S.

Writers Walt Whitman and Anthony Burgess wrote pseudonymous reviews of their own books, as did Benjamin Franklin. The practice of writing pseudonymous self-reviews began before the Internet. Sock puppets are unwelcome in many online communities and forums. A significant difference between a pseudonym and a sock puppet is that the latter poses as a third party independent of the main account operator. The use of the term has expanded to now include other misleading uses of online identities, such as those created to praise, defend, or support a person or organization, to manipulate public opinion, or to circumvent restrictions, such as viewing a social media account that they are blocked from, suspension, or an outright ban from a website. Online, it came to be used to refer to a false identity assumed by a member of an internet community who spoke to, or about, themselves while pretending to be another person. It is a reference to the manipulation of a simple hand puppet made from a sock, and is often used to refer to alternative online identities or user accounts used for purposes of deception. In Internet terms, sock puppets are online identities used for disguised activity by the operator.Ī sock puppet is defined as a person whose actions are controlled by another.

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