S’inscrire en faux

Abstract

Fake online profiles are seen as the problematic manifestation of two social processes: the alleged loss of online anonymity and pseudonymity, and the automated attribution of an online identity with respect to civil identity. Here the authors suggest a third option, digital inscription, a social mechanism through which individuals posit themselves within a platform’s architecture. In three different operating modes (falsification, betrayal, and cheating), fake profiles become a point of tension between the users' everyday sociability, industrial policy (real-name policies), and the web's moral economy based on searching and mining personal information.

Keywords

• identity
• social web
• fake online profile
• inscription
• mining personal information