Samsung fined $340,000 for astroturfing in Taiwan

It has often been suggested that some of the comments critical of Apple on US social media are posted by paid Samsung shills. But there is no proof, and Samsung has certainly never owned up to it. Samsung's subsidiary in Taiwan admitted in April 2013, however, that it had done just that to HTC, hiring students to post fake benchmark reviews of HTC's latest smartphone and reporting -- falsely -- that they were "constantly crashing." According to the AP, Taiwan's Fair Trade Commission fined Samsung's subsidiary 10 million Taiwanese dollars ($340,000) for defaming a rival. Samsung got off cheap. The fines for such activity in Taiwan can run as high as 25 million Taiwanese dollars ($836,000).