• Security incident: ISF was recently accessed by intruders. Please change your password, and change it anywhere else you used it. Read more

Merged Trolls from Russia/Salutin' Putin: inside a Russian troll house

GnaGnaMan

Graduate Poster
G
Joined
Sep 8, 2008
Messages
1,707
Former workers tell how hundreds of bloggers are paid to flood forums and social networks at home and abroad with anti-western and pro-Kremlin comments

[...]

The trolls worked in teams of three. The first one would leave a complaint about some problem or other, or simply post a link, then the other two would wade in, using links to articles on Kremlin-friendly websites and “comedy” photographs lampooning western or Ukrainian leaders with abusive captions.

[...]

The desired conclusion of one reads: “The majority of experts agree that the US is deliberately trying to weaken Russia, and Ukraine is being used only as a way to achieve this goal. If the Ukrainian people had not panicked and backed a coup, the west would have found another way to pressure Russia. But our country is not going to go ahead with the US plans, and we will fight for our sovereignty on the international stage.”

[...]

“People of my generation who grew up with the internet can perhaps spot the troll comments easily. But for the older generation, people who are used to television and are just getting online, they look at all these forums and networks, and it turns out that everyone else out there is even more radical than they are, than their neighbours are.”
Click to expand...

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/02/putin-kremlin-inside-russian-troll-house
 
Salutin' Putin: inside a Russian troll house

How and where (55 Savushkina Street, St. Petersburg) Russia's troll army operates:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/02/putin-kremlin-inside-russian-troll-house

The nondescript building has been identified as the headquarters of Russia’s “troll army”, where hundreds of paid bloggers work round the clock to flood Russian internet forums, social networks and the comments sections of western publications with remarks praising the president, Vladimir Putin, and raging at the depravity and injustice of the west.

The Guardian spoke to two former employees of the troll enterprise, one of whom was in a department running fake blogs on the social network LiveJournal, and one who was part of a team that spammed municipal chat forums around Russia with pro-Kremlin posts. Both said they were employed unofficially and paid cash-in-hand.
Click to expand...

I found it ironic but not at all surprising that an article about paid trolls spamming the Internet with pro-Putin, anti-Western posts gathered in less than a day more comments than I had ever seen in any Guardian article -- most of them denying that such trolls exist. They would have been better off ignoring it.

<snip>


Edited by Loss Leader: 
Edited for Rule 12
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Paying people to troll twitter or Facebook for a cause is not unusual. China does it. Israel does it. Private companies do it. Political campaigns do it.

I'd be more surprised if Putin wasn't paying people to troll.
 
Cleon said:
Paying people to troll twitter or Facebook for a cause is not unusual. China does it. Israel does it. Private companies do it. Political campaigns do it.

I'd be more surprised if Putin wasn't paying people to troll.
Click to expand...
True, but Putin trolls stand out in both quantity of their output (very high), and its quality (laughably obvious).
 
Childlike Empress said:
My goodness, what's up with Shaun Walker? Usually he's on the forefront sniffing Russian tank columns. Maybe his nose finally gave in to the substance. ;)
Click to expand...

I read to the first blatant lie in your first link (for the record, second paragraph, "...they are made on local forums with tiny membership, rarely over 500 users,...) and the second doesn't merit reading at all based on the 'art'.

Laughably bad.
 
Childlike Empress said:
My goodness, what's up with Shaun Walker?
Click to expand...

He could try screaming about WMD's at every opportunity that doesn't present itself, like he did before the Iraq war, but claiming that about Russia would be a bit silly. Seems like he found his new niche for unverifiable claims. And let's be honest, the Guardian needed another boost to their "paid Russian trolls" claim as it was becoming fairly obvious that their previous claims were just excuses for deleting the comments of people pointing out that they've been promoting nazis for a while now.
 
I'm troubled by the use of "nondescript building" in a country where so few buildings are descript anyhow. Only North Korea and China surpass Russia in attempts to achieve architecturally morose, foreboding edifices.

I wonder which agency in the US paid for that article to be written?

A good description of the Internet: troll houses all the way down.
 
caveman1917 said:
He could try screaming about WMD's at every opportunity that doesn't present itself, like he did before the Iraq war, but claiming that about Russia would be a bit silly. Seems like he found his new niche for unverifiable claims. And let's be honest, the Guardian needed another boost to their "paid Russian trolls" claim as it was becoming fairly obvious that their previous claims were just excuses for deleting the comments of people pointing out that they've been promoting nazis for a while now.
Click to expand...

And in addition to the paid trolls, Putin has his share of useful idiots supporters who help to do his dirty work.
 
marplots said:
I'm troubled by the use of "nondescript building" in a country where so few buildings are descript anyhow. Only North Korea and China surpass Russia in attempts to achieve architecturally morose, foreboding edifices.

I wonder which agency in the US paid for that article to be written?

A good description of the Internet: troll houses all the way down.
Click to expand...

Here comes "MOral Equvilency " again....
 
caveman1917 said:
He could try screaming about WMD's at every opportunity that doesn't present itself, like he did before the Iraq war, but claiming that about Russia would be a bit silly. Seems like he found his new niche for unverifiable claims. And let's be honest, the Guardian needed another boost to their "paid Russian trolls" claim as it was becoming fairly obvious that their previous claims were just excuses for deleting the comments of people pointing out that they've been promoting nazis for a while now.
Click to expand...


Really, he's around for that long? From his pics I thought he was a know-nothing 15-minutes-of-fame "reporter" like the one who did the job on Syria for the Guardian, Martin Chulov (full disclosure, that's my text over there), who's gone mightily quiet recently.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

ISF - Join now!

Every member here is approved by hand. No bots, no spam, just people who care about evidence and honest debate.

Membership is free!

Create your free account

Back
Top Bottom