Talking Without Speaking: Paid Trolls on Social Media and Court Decision

Yi Liu
Corresponding Author
Yi Liu
[email protected]
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6094-4327
Department of Marketing, Wisconsin School of Business, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706
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,
Haitao (Tony) Cui
Haitao (Tony) Cui
[email protected]
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0040-6169
Department of Marketing, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455
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Yi Liu

Corresponding Author

Yi Liu

[email protected]

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6094-4327

Department of Marketing, Wisconsin School of Business, University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706

Search for more papers by this author

Haitao (Tony) Cui

[email protected]

https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0040-6169

Department of Marketing, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455

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Published Online:29 Apr 2026https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2024.0679

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Received:January 30, 2024
Accepted:March 05, 2026
Published Online:April 29, 2026

Cite as

Yi Liu, Haitao (Tony) Cui (2026) Talking Without Speaking: Paid Trolls on Social Media and Court Decision. Marketing Science 0(0).

https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.2024.0679

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the senior editor, associate editor, and two anonymous reviewers for constructive and insightful comments, which helped the authors significantly improve the paper; seminar/conference participants at the Chinese University of Hong Kong–Shenzhen, City University of Hong Kong, Fudan University, H.K. Poly U, HKUST, Jiangnan University, McGill University, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, POMS Annual Conference 2025, Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Shenzhen University, Tsinghua University, University of Hong Kong, University of North Carolina, Xiamen University, and the Marketing Science Annual Conference for helpful comments; Jessie Liu and Zheng Gong for valuable discussions; Sabrina Tang, Dennis Cui, and Chenyue Wu for superb assistance on collections of relevant cases and references; and Mr. Qingyu Yin, partner of the Finnegan, Henderson, Farabow, Garrett & Dunner, LLP, Mr. Jie Zhu, partner of the Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, and an anonymous partner at the Forsgren Fisher McCalmont DeMarea Tysver, LLP for invaluable information about the practices of legal disputes and court ruling in the United States. H. Cui also thanks his college classmates in the Tsinghua University 1993 Alumni WeChat groups for the discussions among them and with the author, which provided many insights for the progress of the paper. All errors remain our own. Both authors contributed equally to the paper.

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