Posted on 06/04/2015 3:05:43 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
A former Internet "troll" who had been hired to promote political views online is suing her former employer in an attempt to draw attention to Russia's "information war" technologies, a news report said Friday.
The grounds for the lawsuit filed by Lyudmila Savchuk, which is expected to be heard by a St. Petersburg city court next month, is the employer's failure to provide any labor contract or other paperwork supporting her hiring and eventual dismissal, Kommersant reported.
Savchuk said she was fired after speaking to the media about her employer, Internet Research, which she described as part of Russia's "troll factory," according to the report.
Internet Research is believed to be linked to another company with a similar name, Internet Reseach Agency, which in the spring merged with a firm called New Technologies, whose official registration documents identify it as a construction company, according to media reports.
"The 'troll factory' operates based on very weird schemes, but all those firms are connected to each other, even though they are separate legal entities," Savchuk was quoted as saying.
Since her dismissal, Savchuk has been organizing a public movement against online trolling called "Informatsionny Mir" — a name that can be translated both as "Information World" and "Information Peace — in contrast with the so-called information war.
"There are both opposition activists and supporters of the government among us, but we all believe that such methods of information war are unacceptable," she said, Kommersant reported.
Lawyer Darya Sukhikh from St. Petersburg-based human rights organization Kommanda-29 (Team-29), which is representing Savchuk, was quoted as saying the lawsuit was "just a pretext to force this rather secretive organization into public view," allowing lawyers to demand the organization's documents.
Savchuk said she was hired in December after responding to a job ad, Kommersant reported. She was to work 12-hour shifts posting political comments on an assigned topic on various websites, for a monthly salary of 41,000 rubles ($778), which was paid in cash until her dismissal in March, Savchuk was quoted as saying.
Internet Research was not immediately available for comment. Its business registration listing provides a cell phone number, which was answered by a man who declined to provide his name but said he was no longer employed by the company, Kommersant reported.
Aw man, you mean there’s a way to get paid for being a jerk online? Where do I sign up?
And here I’ve been doing it for free
Interesting story. The NYSlimes has unwittingly done us a huge favor here. Now we know about Putin’s Agency. Anyone doubt that the Klown has one? Read TexasGator’s posts. FReeRepublic has a bunch of them. The interesting aspect of this story is the quotas they had to meet. Only a fraction of the posts had to be “business” but the rest were required to provide “cover”. To give them a better appearance of a real person. Very interesting.
Not all of the pro-Kremlin trolls here on FR are actually that. I refer to them as the paleo/paultard/peacenik/putinista Brigade. And it’s hard to distinguish between the flavors, because the Russians muddy the water.
You sign up at Organizing For Action, the PAC that funded Obola - and continues to pay millenial-age trolls to spam the Web, swing the online polls, and scream “sexist-racist-homophobe” at anyone with an opposing view.
Remember Uncle Saul said that “A good tactic is one your people enjoy”.
I doubt all the TexasGator types are actually getting a check from the Klown but I don’t doubt a good many are. “Know yourself, know the enemy” comes to mind. It is kind of curious, in a way. I don’t recall an effort to do that in a big way during the BJ impeachment.
Weird stuff going on lately. Rush getting weird seminar callers lately. Two days ago was the “conservative tranny” and yesterday the “dog trapped in a man’s body. Wondering what they will come up with today, lizard trapped in a snake?
TexasGator is being paid by who?
Shouldn’t you ping him, rather than run a clandestine internet campaign against him?
“TexasGator is being paid by who? Shouldn’t you ping him, rather than run a clandestine internet campaign against him?”
Russia and Soros are out to destabilize the U.S. by breaking down our society and trust of the police.
hmmmm. Who are the anti-police conspiracists here?
Not very clandestine. Why don’t give a holler over to his desk?
Or you a drug user? How did that post make any sense at all?
You know very well that you should ping freepers that you are attacking.
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