activity) for promotional purposes is an unethical practice, therefore we use the term “black market” to describe this part of the industry. This is not to say they are necessarily breaking any rules or laws—that question is outside the scope of this paper.

This kind of activity is considered unethical for the following reasons. a) The users of a social platform are misled by a page or post having an artificially inflated number of likes, followers, etc. Normally, it is impossible for users to differentiate between paid activity and genuine activity. The conventional semantic behind a like, upvote, or follow is a statement of approval of the content in question. In other words, the microworkers are paid to lie in the sense that they are paid to pretend to like/endorse/approve content that they most likely have not truly read or watched. b) The microworker’s “employment” is arguably rather exploitative, because of the low payment and the apparent lack of any powers against the clients (see table \[Payment\]). c) Content creators and social media users who do not employ such practices are clearly disadvantaged. Finally, d) it is easy to see that if paid social media activity were more universal, it 