• CrayonRosary@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    A “burner” account? Never heard it called that before. “Sock puppet” or just “puppet” makes much more sense.

    • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      It’s pretty common for people to refer to these types of accounts as burners on Twitter. I recall the GM of the 76ers getting in trouble about 5-10 years ago for having sock puppet accounts on Twitter and all the reporting referred to them as burners.

    • catloaf@lemm.ee
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      2 years ago

      It’s like a burner phone, you use it for a short time, then throw it away. Like throwaway accounts on reddit. A sockpuppet is specifically to make it look like multiple people have a certain opinion (see also: astroturfing).

      • Snot Flickerman@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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        2 years ago

        So in the case of the article in question, then, this absolutely refers to a “sockpuppet” and not a “burner” because Adrian Dittmann isn’t going anywhere.

    • Beefy-Tootz@lemmy.world
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      2 years ago

      Burner feels like such an old school term. I’ve more often heard “alt”, “Smurf”, or “finsta”. The last being a portmanteau of fake Instagram account