Exploring astroturf lobbying in the EU: The case of responsible energy citizen coalition

Abstract

This paper explores the creation of an astroturf group, which is a fake grassroots movement, and looks at the strategies that were used to influence EU policies. The case under scrutiny is the Responsible Energy Citizen Coalition. This alleged citizen movement launched a campaign to influence two European Parliament reports regarding shale gas exploration in 2012. A quantitative text analysis offers insights regarding the astroturf group's communication strategy in comparison to 39 other interest groups who published position papers on the issue. This study shows how the astroturf group's communication is aligned with that of the organizations, which were behind its creation. Furthermore, the distinction between lobbying success and lobbying influence is discussed and a correspondence analysis shows how the astroturf group might have contributed to the success of the pro-shale coalition on the outcome of one of the two policy proposals.

Disinformation, social media, bots, and astroturfing: the fourth wave of digital democracy

“…Empirical research has also provided concrete cases in which astroturfing campaigns have had different levels of success due to the importance of context (Alallaq; Al-khiza'ay; Han, 2019; Keller et al, 2020;Lits, 2021;Hobbs et al, 2020; Francois; Barash; Kelly, 2021).…”

Detecting astroturf lobbying movements

“…He explained from a sociological perspective how the evolution of the European political structures and the need for the European institutions to regain trust from their citizens lead businesses to try and legitimate their actions through front groups to feed that need of institutional legitimacy. The presence of astroturf groups in Europe has also been studied by Lits (in press) who showed how the oil and gas industry deployed an astroturf campaign to influence two specific reports of the European Parliament.…”

Astroturfing e debate político espanhol nas redes sociais: um estudo de caso

“…La estrategia empleada por los micro y nano-influencers se lleva a cabo desde lo que se ha dado en llamar como astroturfing, es decir, desde una acción comunicativa digital centrada en la espontaneidad y la libertad de expresión, hecha de forma organizadas y coordinada (Lits, 2020). Una estrategia destinada, principalmente, en la promoción de contenidos y temas, empleado en política, relaciones públicas y publicidad desde hace décadas (Sorensen, Andrews y Drennan, 2017), y que, con el auge de los escenarios digitales actuales ha cobrado un creciente uso e interés para la divulgación de contenido desinformativo (Elmas et al, 2019).…”