Posted on 03/26/2015 7:55:01 AM PDT by WhiskeyX
More and more, posts and commentaries on the Internet in Russia and even abroad are generated by professional trolls, many of whom receive a higher-than-average salary for perpetuating a pro-Kremlin dialogue online.
There are thousands of fake accounts on Twitter, Facebook, LiveJournal, and vKontakte, all increasingly focused on the war in Ukraine. Many emanate from Russia's most famous "troll factory," the Internet Research center, an unassuming building on St. Petersburg's Savushkina Street, which runs on a 24-hour cycle. In recent weeks, former employees have come forward to talk to RFE/RL about life inside the factory, where hundreds of people work grinding, 12-hour shifts in exchange for 40,000 rubles ($700) a month or more.
St. Petersburg blogger Marat Burkhard spent two months working at Internet Research in the department tasked with clogging the forums on Russia's municipal websites with pro-Kremlin comments. In the following interview, he describes a typical day and the type of assignments he encountered.
(Excerpt) Read more at rferl.org ...
Some of the articles describing the St. Petersburg Internet Research Agency say they have people or staff working there who specialize in preparing tables of pre-written text and prepared images to make it faster and easier for the Russian trolls in the other groups to cut and paste into them into blog discussions. You sure do have numerous troll and Russian troll images in use here.
Unfortunately, they don’t seem to have anything to do with the St. Petersburg Internet News Agency that is the topic of discussion here, unless you are trying to hint that they do.
“I don’t understand why you would work against the interests of the United States like you are doing, unless, of course, you were a paid Russian troll.”
LOL, Since when did the investigation and disclosure of clandestine Russian information warfare operations somehow constitute “work against the interests of the United States”?
That is because I am a paid Russian troll.
You know darned well!
Or, should I say, "Алты́нного во́ра ве́шают, а полти́нного че́ствуют."
Take dees thread to Cooba!!!
FR has always been "open" to debate events regarding all and various countries and their relationship to ours. ....and for that uncovered what was really happening and or at least try to..... But when it comes to Russia/Putin that free flow of information seems to cease unless your into Obama's Agenda for Russia/Putin bashing.
Imo... It isn't about Putin and Obama...it's about why and, where and how these events begin, unfold, and the opportunity to engage on what we think might be the outcome and it's affects both here and Internationally....which do matter.
I am sorry that you have been cornered enough to see the need to identify yourself, or have witness to do so in order to push back those who have been most unfair and wrong in their assessment of who you are and your posts.
I and others here will continue to read and comment to your posts....they are interesting and insightful...and hopefully the truth will one day be found.
Meanwhile....the G-5 plus one are all sitting together regarding Iran.....including Russia. Which testifies to the fact no matter what the propaganda is the leadership between Russia and the US and other nations always remains in motion for what their influences can affect...regardless of the passion of their current differences.
fyi (not adding fuel to the fire...)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/30/us-usa-threats-poll-idUSKBN0MQ0AV20150330
Republicans see Obama as more imminent threat than Putin: Reuters/Ipsos poll
WASHINGTON | By Roberta Rampton
(Reuters) - A third of Republicans believe President Barack Obama poses an imminent threat to the United States, outranking concerns about Russian President Vladimir Putin and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
A Reuters/Ipsos online poll this month asked 2,809 Americans to rate how much of a threat a list of countries, organizations and individuals posed to the United States on a scale of 1 to 5, with one being no threat and 5 being an imminent threat.
The poll showed 34 percent of Republicans ranked Obama as an imminent threat, ahead of Putin (25 percent), who has been accused of aggression in the Ukraine, and Assad (23 percent). Western governments have alleged that Assad used chlorine gas and barrel bombs on his own citizens. View the graphic.
“You know darned well!”
Nope, haven’t got a clue how the investigation and disclosure of clandestine Russian information warfare operations somehow constitute “work against the interests of the United States.”
You’re just spamming or trolling the discussion for more off-topic comments that have nothing to do with the information warfare being conducted by the St. Petersburg Internet Research Agency. Why are you going to so much trouble to avoid discussing the topic of the news story?
Well.... the US and Britain and Germany and all the G-20 have their Agencies as well....which are switched to high mode when there are International events they want to affect public opinion on and other reasons as well.
You make it seem like ONLY Russia has these.....Just take a look at Soros who has his in 50 countries under various foundations and groups so that he might influence outcomes of interest.
It's in political arenas and pretty much everything ...from think tanks to a host of others.
My question is why make such a deal out of it? Or is it just interesting for you to have discovered one of many operations like it?
“Russian agent”
Useful idiots are another important group...
“I post extensively on FR about Christian topics”
...and about NWO.
Yes, NWO.
Do you care to comment on Simon Sebag Montefiore’s book “Young Stalin” and its account of Josef Stalin working for the Rothschilds ?
I found it interesting that the leader of the USSR had a work history with the Rothschild family.
“You make it seem like ONLY Russia has these.....”
Apparently, the script says “when Russian troll factories are mentioned, scream that everyone does it”.
“Well.... the US and Britain and Germany and all the G-20 have their Agencies as well....”
Feel free to open another thread dedicated to these activities.
Because America and Russia are one, now.
Which goes hand in glove with 'economic' warfare and as much technological warfare when countries are engaged over differences. Currently even our military leaders have stated that technology advances in Russia have surpassed our military. That's about to change but currently is so...additionally Russia has for decades used propaganda heavily in all areas they want to influence.....so do we.
....We are after all in a "Information Era".....the only difference from the past is it's very fast moving...so the facts of one moment can be history before it's even made the news agencies, or other evidence discovered to dispute that in just moments.
Additionally...today once anything is in the media , which there are no investigation journalists doing the work to confirm what they write, it's reported as is and the truth is generally reported as it really is long after it's headlines and most have forgotten or no longer interested.
Obama and liberals do this all the time...they know public interests is very short, so they plans distractions and long term stalls so that what is true is never revealed when it matters to know it.
Regarding troll factories...”everyone does it”.
Yes indeed they do. And most operate basically the same...which is why when on social media’s you can tell when they are in full operation and their style. They copy from one another and share their tactics.....paid to the highest bidder sometimes as well for not all are loyal to their cause.
I do think Russia has relied more heavily on propaganda then most countries....they have always seen this as part of their warfare agendas, political and otherwise and why they are so fast and through. They’ve had decades to fine tune it. Their problem is other countries now are creating “tighter” and more professional Agencies as well...and these are fast catching up to Russia.
ROTFLOL...........
“Well.... the US and Britain and Germany and all the G-20 have their Agencies as well....”
In an earlier post on this topic I quoted an article which acknowledged the existence of propaganda campaigns by the United States and its allies. I also commented in posts 144, 146, 147, 153 and perhaps other about how the Russian false propaganda and disinformation campaigns cannot be remotely compared to any other nation’s with the possible exception of China with respect to its usage in killing and murdering tens of millions of human beings, with the Russian carnage now continuing in the Ukraine and the Russian murdering of the MH-17 passengers and crew. The Russian trolling and information warfare is also highly relevant with Putin and his regime’s use of those resources and Russian media to threaten the use of Russian nuclear weapons in a first strike to commence a general nuclear war.
“You make it seem like ONLY Russia has these.....”
That is a false accusation, because I already quoted the same source which acknowledged Russia is not the only nation to be conducting propaganda campaigns. What sets Russia apart from every other nation by monumental degrees is the present and historical scope, lethality, and inhumane and criminal application of such operations.
“Just take a look at Soros who has his in 50 countries under various foundations and groups so that he might influence outcomes of interest.”
Soros is another foreign influence and threat to America and its Republicanism. However, Soros is not the topic covered by the news story under discussion and is being used in this discussion to change the subject away from the activities and threat posed by the Russian Internet trolls in general and the St. Petersburg Internet Research Agency in specific. Continuing efforts to change the subject to Soros or anything else not encompassed by the original news article that is the subject of this discussion may therefore be reasonably viewed as another attempt to quash criticism of those Russian operations.
“My question is why make such a deal out of it? Or is it just interesting for you to have discovered one of many operations like it?”
Because those Russian operations at worst pose a substantial threat to the lives of hundreds of millions of people around the word, insofar as the Russians could be deceived into believing their own false propaganda and disinformation and then act upon the false information to launch a first strike nuclear attack and war killing hundreds of millions of human beings around the world. At best such Russian operations have facilitated the killing of tens of thousands of Russians and non-Russians since 1991 alone, with a credible threat of countless more thousands of lives to be lost in the near future. A discussion of the Russian information warfare has the potential to better inform the public about the role of misinforming the public with disinformation that tends to facilitate deadly conflicts.
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