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One Professional Russian Troll Tells All
Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) ^ | March 25, 2015 | Dmitry Volchek and Daisy Sindelar

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 ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Russia
KEYWORDS: disinformation; internetresearch; propaganda; russia
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To: BeadCounter

That isn’t the point.

Take a stroll through any number of glass-front office park buildings around DC, and you’ll see literally dozens of the exact same operations.

Before the coup, CNN was lauding how “Sophisticated” the EuroMaidan’s “Internet Opinion Operation” was, and even showed the servers, and people online, in several languages.

Hillary Clinton’s “Clinton’s Civil Society 2.0 initiative” sponsored the Soros “Open Society”-financed “Tech Camps” in Ukraine leading up to Maidan.

This guy has posted this same BS over a dozen times now, trying to create an IMPRESSION, without ever once mentioning that EVERYONE is doing it. That’s simple hypocrisy, and he does have an agenda to pimp.


61 posted on 03/26/2015 10:37:22 AM PDT by tcrlaf (They told me it could never happen in America. And then it did....)
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To: WhiskeyX

“There is nothing ironic about it”

lol..
hypocrite...


62 posted on 03/26/2015 10:38:05 AM PDT by tcrlaf (They told me it could never happen in America. And then it did....)
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To: tcrlaf

This is a topic and thread about paid Russian Internet trolls disseminating FALSE propaganda and disinformation. Your efforts to quash this discussion with off-topic remarks is inappropriate for this thread.


63 posted on 03/26/2015 10:41:07 AM PDT by WhiskeyX
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To: tcrlaf

And protesters were out in Ukraine months before the LIE of the coup took place and the former President is wanted by interpol and pillaged the nation. Enough of the Putin supporters trying to excuse the rape and murder everyday of this illegal invasion.

Litvenenko calls Putin a pedophile, we might as well believe that too.


64 posted on 03/26/2015 10:43:10 AM PDT by BeadCounter
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To: BeadCounter

You lost me at “Lie of the coup”

I don’t do Orwellian NewSpeak BS.


65 posted on 03/26/2015 10:45:35 AM PDT by tcrlaf (They told me it could never happen in America. And then it did....)
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To: tcrlaf

“hypocrite”

Your accusation is another Tu quoque remark used to derail and quash a discussion of the Russian Internet trolls by changing the subject to a different topic which you represent or misrepresent as critical of the United States and its allies.

Tu quoque; [1] Latin for “you, too” or “you, also”) or the appeal to hypocrisy is an informal logical fallacy that intends to discredit the opponent’s position by asserting the opponent’s failure to act consistently in accordance with that position. It attempts to show that a criticism or objection applies equally to the person making it. This attempts to dismiss opponent’s position based on criticism of the opponent’s inconsistency and not the position presented.[2] It is a special case of ad hominem fallacy, which is a category of fallacies in which a claim or argument is rejected on the basis of fact about the person presenting or supporting the claim or argument.[3] To clarify, although the person being attacked might indeed be acting inconsistently or hypocritically, such behavior does not invalidate the position presented. (Wikipedia)


66 posted on 03/26/2015 10:45:38 AM PDT by WhiskeyX
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To: WhiskeyX

There is the question of whether or some some avid supporters of the globalist agendas undertaken by the government are paid trolls of US agencies.

The “you too” does not prove a point logically, but it raises that question.

Of course the many FR lurkers and FReepers undoubtedly take this consideration into account.

The former 100% support of US government operations is very, very, very much waning amongst American conservatives, simply because we’re finding out that there definitely is something to the “wacko” conspiracy “theories”.

We’re finally waking up to globalism.

And the global elite sees that as the real problem for them that it is.


67 posted on 03/26/2015 10:57:47 AM PDT by PieterCasparzen (Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.)
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To: tcrlaf

The mulit-billion dollar “civil society” industry is kept out of the mainstream news completely.

Until recently the sheeple basically were unaware of it.

So they did not know how it worked with State Dept and intelligence.


68 posted on 03/26/2015 11:01:19 AM PDT by PieterCasparzen (Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.)
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To: tcrlaf

“Take a stroll through any number of glass-front office park buildings around DC, and you’ll see literally dozens of the exact same operations.”

Your statement is a false statement and a lie insofar as the United States has not invaded, conquered, and annexed the territory of a sovereign nation since the adoption of the Kellogg-Briand Treaty in 1928. Therefore, it is quite impossible for the “exact same operations” to have been conducted by the United States in which Russia has invaded, occupied, and annexed the territory of the Ukraine in the Crimea.

“This guy has posted this same BS over a dozen times now, trying to create an IMPRESSION, without ever once mentioning that EVERYONE is doing it. That’s simple hypocrisy, and he does have an agenda to pimp.”

What part of the previous quotation did you fail to understand? “To clarify, although the person being attacked might indeed be acting inconsistently or hypocritically, such behavior does not invalidate the position presented.”

Nor does the Tu Quoque or ad hominem you are using to suppress the discussion of this subject about paid Russian Internet Trolls “invalidate the position presented” by these news stories about those paid Russian Internet Trolls. Oh, did I mention, this discussion is about the paid Russian Internet Trolls?


69 posted on 03/26/2015 11:02:53 AM PDT by WhiskeyX
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To: WhiskeyX

amazing, but not surprising


70 posted on 03/26/2015 11:03:13 AM PDT by samtheman
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To: justlurking

I think that he is one of the several long term FSB plants here.


71 posted on 03/26/2015 11:04:13 AM PDT by 05 Mustang GT Rocks
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To: mac_truck

Yea right Jane!


72 posted on 03/26/2015 11:04:41 AM PDT by free_life (If you ask Jesus to forgive you and to save you, He will.)
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To: PieterCasparzen

What does that have to do with the topic of this thread is: i.e. the paid Russian Internet Trolls and who they are, what motivates them, what their favorite toothpaste is?


73 posted on 03/26/2015 11:05:01 AM PDT by WhiskeyX
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To: BeadCounter

“protesters were out in Ukraine months before the LIE of the coup took place “

The Soros Tech Camps started in 2012.


74 posted on 03/26/2015 11:09:36 AM PDT by tcrlaf (They told me it could never happen in America. And then it did....)
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To: WhiskeyX

You got all 5 of Putin’s trolls posting.


75 posted on 03/26/2015 11:12:36 AM PDT by 05 Mustang GT Rocks
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To: PieterCasparzen

There you go again with trying to deflect the discussion away from the topic of this news article; i.e. Professional Russian Trolls. Perhaps you are trying to give us a first hand demonstration of how a Professional Russian Internet Troll suppresses news articles critical of Putin, Russia, and his cook’s Internet Research paid Russian Internet Trolls and disinformation propagandists.


76 posted on 03/26/2015 11:13:36 AM PDT by WhiskeyX
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To: WhiskeyX

I swear some of you have Putin Derangement Syndrome. With the world falling apart you are all worried about Russian Internet trolls.


77 posted on 03/26/2015 11:15:14 AM PDT by McGruff (Boy that Ted Cruz sure is catching alot of flak.)
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To: McGruff

The Russian military on the attack is part of that “world is falling apart”.

The Russian threat has long been a top threat to generations of Americans and Europeans, and it is currently a concern as Americans and our allies are having to take up defensive positions against the Russian Army as they invade towards our borders.

You seem obsessed with advancing Russian military interests and it seems to be your top issue here.


78 posted on 03/26/2015 11:25:27 AM PDT by ansel12 (Palin--Mr President, the only thing that stops a bad guy with a nuke is a good guy with a nuke.)
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To: WhiskeyX

I find it amusing “conservative” Putin bootlickers use the old leftist moral equivalence “everybody does it” excuse.

Too bad for them not everybody carries water for mass murdering KGB filth while living in free countries. Only they do that.


79 posted on 03/26/2015 11:26:11 AM PDT by lodi90
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To: 05 Mustang GT Rocks

My estimate is something like 7 to 9 of the pro-Russian trolls on this thread.


80 posted on 03/26/2015 11:28:26 AM PDT by WhiskeyX
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