This is disturbing, though unsurprising. How widespread could it get? Normative pressure is enough to lead to a removal at present but that seems unlikely to be a viable long-term counter-strategy:
Someone out there really wants President Donald Trump’s polarizing nominee for secretary of education, Betsy DeVos, to get the job — so much so that they’ve been paying random internet users to write notes supporting her contentious confirmation.
Users on paid task sites like InstaGC, Swagbucks, and Covet Fashion, which reward users for shopping at certain websites or completing small tasks and surveys online, have been reporting a task that links to SupportDeVos.com. The website contains a contact form to get in touch with members of Congress — but only to send notes of support for DeVos’s confirmation. Users who fill out and send the support form earn points or actual cash, but there is no option to send a note of dissent.
Spokespersons for InstaGC as well as the company that runs Covet Fashion each confirmed that the ads recently appeared on their sites and have since been removed.
http://www.vox.com/culture/2017/2/7/14498504/betsy-devos-anonymous-online-advertising
Mark Carrigan 