Thinking Taxonomically about Fake Accounts: Classification, False Dichotomies, and the Need for Nuance
This addresses the need for clearer classification of fake accounts for researchers and platforms, though it is incremental as it builds on existing conceptual frameworks without introducing a new taxonomy.
The paper tackles the problem of confusion in defining fake accounts by proposing a systematic, combined philosophical and computer science-based approach to think taxonomically about them, deconstructing false dichotomies like Facebook's Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior framework.
It is often said that war creates a fog in which it becomes difficult to discern friend from foe on the battlefield. In the ongoing war on fake accounts, conscious development of taxonomies of the phenomenon has yet to occur, resulting in much confusion on the digital battlefield about what exactly a fake account is. This paper intends to address this problem, not by proposing a taxonomy of fake accounts, but by proposing a systematic way to think taxonomically about the phenomenon. Specifically, we examine fake accounts through both a combined philosophical and computer science-based perspective. Through these lenses, we deconstruct narrow binary thinking about fake accounts, both in the form of general false dichotomies and specifically in relation to the Facebook's conceptual framework "Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior" (CIB). We then address the false dichotomies by constructing a more complex way of thinking taxonomically about fake accounts.