By: Emily Beaver

Forget town hall. The battle over health care reform is now happening on Facebook.

Last week, a group backed by the health insurance industry got some bad press when the Business Insider reported that the group was offering Facebook gamers "virtual cash" to send e-mails to their Congressional representatives opposing health care reform.

Get Health Reform Right, a group made up associations that support the health insurance industry, was offering "virtual currency" people can use to play Facebook games like Mafia Wars and FarmVille. But to get the money, players had to fill out a survey about health care reform. Completing the survey generated an automatic e-mail, which was sent to the player's Congressional representative, saying "I am concerned a new government plan could cause me to lose the employer coverage I have today. More government bureaucracy will only create more problems, not solve the ones we have."

Critics say this amounts to virtual "astroturfing," a nickname for creating political support artificially. Supporters of health care reform have fired back, placing ads of Facebook saying health insurers are bribing gamers to claim they oppose health reform.