Astroturfing?

I've just been reading an article[1] about how corporations are using a method called "astroturfing" to generate fake 'grass' roots' support for them or a product. This can involve the auto creation of hundreds of online personas on social sites.

Its mass social engineering.

Now the relevance to SEO is: What are these "tools" they mention in the article?:

This software creates all the online furniture a real person would possess: a name, email accounts, web pages and social media. In other words, it automatically generates what look like authentic profiles, making it hard to tell the difference between a virtual robot and a real commentator.

Click to expand...

I'm just wondering if we're missing a potential trick here or are they talking about software we all know about anyway (like xGenSEO and SENuke)?

[1] http://www.guardian.co.uk/environme...23/need-to-protect-internet-from-astroturfing

I think they stole that from blackhatters.

this term should be changed, it sounds like an astrology thing