COINTELPRO Techniques for dilution, misdirection and control of a internet forum. (Trolling 101)

E-Mail and Freepers

[Sidebar Moderator]

Thanks to many FReepers who have sent us this information. Apparently, this is floating around the Internet now. It is a guide to trolling. While it may or may not be fake in its origins, we do see these techniques all the time and felt it would be good to share with everyone.

______________________________________________________ COINTELPRO Techniques for dilution, misdirection and control of a internet forum..

There are several techniques for the control and manipulation of a internet forum no matter what, or who is on it. We will go over each technique and demonstrate that only a minimal number of operatives can be used to eventually and effectively gain a control of a ‘uncontrolled forum.’

Technique #1 - ‘FORUM SLIDING’

If a very sensitive posting of a critical nature has been posted on a forum - it can be quickly removed from public view by ‘forum sliding.’ In this technique a number of unrelated posts are quietly prepositioned on the forum and allowed to ‘age.’ Each of these misdirectional forum postings can then be called upon at will to trigger a ‘forum slide.’ The second requirement is that several fake accounts exist, which can be called upon, to ensure that this technique is not exposed to the public. To trigger a ‘forum slide’ and ‘flush’ the critical post out of public view it is simply a matter of logging into each account both real and fake and then ‘replying’ to prepositined postings with a simple 1 or 2 line comment. This brings the unrelated postings to the top of the forum list, and the critical posting ‘slides’ down the front page, and quickly out of public view. Although it is difficult or impossible to censor the posting it is now lost in a sea of unrelated and unuseful postings. By this means it becomes effective to keep the readers of the forum reading unrelated and non-issue items.

Technique #2 - ‘CONSENSUS CRACKING’

A second highly effective technique (which you can see in operation all the time at *********) is ‘consensus cracking.’ To develop a consensus crack, the following technique is used. Under the guise of a fake account a posting is made which looks legitimate and is towards the truth is made - but the critical point is that it has a VERY WEAK PREMISE without substantive proof to back the posting. Once this is done then under alternative fake accounts a very strong position in your favour is slowly introduced over the life of the posting. It is IMPERATIVE that both sides are initially presented, so the uninformed reader cannot determine which side is the truth. As postings and replies are made the stronger ‘evidence’ or disinformation in your favour is slowly ‘seeded in.’ Thus the uninformed reader will most like develop the same position as you, and if their position is against you their opposition to your posting will be most likely dropped. However in some cases where the forum members are highly educated and can counter your disinformation with real facts and linked postings, you can then ‘abort’ the consensus cracking by initiating a ‘forum slide.’

Technique #3 - ‘TOPIC DILUTION’

Topic dilution is not only effective in forum sliding it is also very useful in keeping the forum readers on unrelated and non-productive issues. This is a critical and useful technique to cause a ‘RESOURCE BURN.’ By implementing continual and non-related postings that distract and disrupt (trolling ) the forum readers they are more effectively stopped from anything of any real productivity. If the intensity of gradual dilution is intense enough, the readers will effectively stop researching and simply slip into a ‘gossip mode.’ In this state they can be more easily misdirected away from facts towards uninformed conjecture and opinion. The less informed they are the more effective and easy it becomes to control the entire group in the direction that you would desire the group to go in. It must be stressed that a proper assessment of the psychological capabilities and levels of education is first determined of the group to determine at what level to ‘drive in the wedge.’ By being too far off topic too quickly it may trigger censorship by a forum moderator.

Technique #4 - ‘INFORMATION COLLECTION’

Information collection is also a very effective method to determine the psychological level of the forum members, and to gather intelligence that can be used against them. In this technique in a light and positive environment a ‘show you mine so me yours’ posting is initiated. From the number of replies and the answers that are provided much statistical information can be gathered. An example is to post your ‘favorite weapon’ and then encourage other members of the forum to showcase what they have. In this matter it can be determined by reverse proration what percentage of the forum community owns a firearm, and or a illegal weapon. This same method can be used by posing as one of the form members and posting your favorite ‘technique of operation.’ From the replies various methods that the group utilizes can be studied and effective methods developed to stop them from their activities.

Technique #5 - ‘ANGER TROLLING’

Statistically, there is always a percentage of the forum posters who are more inclined to violence. In order to determine who these individuals are, it is a requirement to present a image to the forum to deliberately incite a strong psychological reaction. From this the most violent in the group can be effectively singled out for reverse IP location and possibly local enforcement tracking. To accomplish this only requires posting a link to a video depicting a local police officer massively abusing his power against a very innocent individual. Statistically of the million or so police officers in America there is always one or two being caught abusing there powers and the taping of the activity can be then used for intelligence gathering purposes - without the requirement to ‘stage’ a fake abuse video. This method is extremely effective, and the more so the more abusive the video can be made to look. Sometimes it is useful to ‘lead’ the forum by replying to your own posting with your own statement of violent intent, and that you ‘do not care what the authorities think!!’ inflammation. By doing this and showing no fear it may be more effective in getting the more silent and self-disciplined violent intent members of the forum to slip and post their real intentions. This can be used later in a court of law during prosecution.

Technique #6 - ‘GAINING FULL CONTROL’

It is important to also be harvesting and continually maneuvering for a forum moderator position. Once this position is obtained, the forum can then be effectively and quietly controlled by deleting unfavorable postings - and one can eventually steer the forum into complete failure and lack of interest by the general public. This is the ‘ultimate victory’ as the forum is no longer participated with by the general public and no longer useful in maintaining their freedoms. Depending on the level of control you can obtain, you can deliberately steer a forum into defeat by censoring postings, deleting memberships, flooding, and or accidentally taking the forum offline. By this method the forum can be quickly killed. However it is not always in the interest to kill a forum as it can be converted into a ‘honey pot’ gathering center to collect and misdirect newcomers and from this point be completely used for your control for your agenda purposes.

CONCLUSION

Remember these techniques are only effective if the forum participants DO NOT KNOW ABOUT THEM. Once they are aware of these techniques the operation can completely fail, and the forum can become uncontrolled. At this point other avenues must be considered such as initiating a false legal precedence to simply have the forum shut down and taken offline. This is not desirable as it then leaves the enforcement agencies unable to track the percentage of those in the population who always resist attempts for control against them. Many other techniques can be utilized and developed by the individual and as you develop further techniques of infiltration and control it is imperative to share then with HQ.

[potlatch]

I had missed this thread, did you see it devolve?

[devolve]

.

No - I did not see it - before

I was still over at Burger Ping

I imagine many of the sleepers and trolls and Mobys will be posting on this thread

[potlatch]

Well, all the log out, shut down, reboot and re log in didn’t help a bit! Had two Proxy errors and took minutes to get here.

This thread was posted on Jan 16th, found a link to it on another thread.

[devolve]

.

OK -

You are having connection time problems on FR with your cable broadband on your PC - and [PROXY] errors

I am now having long connection delays getting to this and other threads on my WebTV Plus - on MSN IP - using Optimum fiberoptic Voice dialup

Something is definitely wrong

- Servers
- Hacking
- Software bugs
- Denial of Service attacks
- Timed attempted connections by the leftie thugs of O’Bummer

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

Something is definitely wrong

- Servers
- Hacking
- Software bugs
- Denial of Service attacks
- Timed attempted connections by the leftie thugs of O’Bummer
~~~
FR seems a little slooo to me too,,,

Mite be a good time to dump all cookies and sweep the system,,,

Yes,,,We have had DOS attacks lately,,,

Ain’t gunna get no better...:0/

[devolve]

.

I dumped all my cookies about 3 weeks ago

I operate using a circa 2000 RCA WebTV Plus receiver - connection through my Optimum Cable Motorola modem using Optimum fiberoptic Voice

WebTV Plus/MSN is immune from viruses, Trojans, bugs - impossible for my 6 WebTV email accounts to be affected

I do notice if a website is running slowly - tonight I see my connections taking from 32-47 seconds - a PC or laptop on Cable Broadband may be mucho quicker

Who and/or what would be interested in hacking or DNS attacks on FR?

Surely not the Chi-Coms or the Russkies

I’d say a domestic source

That would be who?

Is it time for FReepers to educate themselves about our new “Present” by going to WhiteHouse.gov?

I’m sure they would appreciate the hits and popularity -

I would not say “every 15 minutes” - on the hour?

Then again could O’Bummers ME campaign contributors and Camp GITMO prisoner’s buddies be giving O’Bummer a hand?

-

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

I generally dump everything about once a week,,,

Sweep the system at that time,,,Go from there,,,

IMO it’s O’Bammy Buddies that are skroooin’ with FR,,,

The “Chan Clans” may be doin’ his dirty work...

[potlatch]

I thought I had it solved but just had another proxy error.

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

I thought I had it solved but just had another proxy error.
~~~
Hey,,,Back up to yorkie~speed here,,,;0)

Mite be your server,,,

My SuddenLink gets slooo/etc. sometimes,,,also,,,

Dump cookies/files/etc. and sweep your system.(yapyapyap);0)

[devolve]

.

Oh boy!

Trouble in River City!

[potlatch]

Lol, my Yorkie is lying on his back here, sound asleep!

I thought I had found the problem. MalwareBytes had removed two registry items that look really bad. Right after I restored them I moved faster. But am having some slowness again now and am going on to bed as I wrote devolve! I’m worn out with this all day.

I deleted cookies about 5 days ago. Deleted temp files today. This is what MalwareBytes removed;

Registry Values Infected:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\gadcom (Trojan.Agent) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully.

Registry Data Items Infected:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Userinit (Hijack.UserInit) -> Bad: (C:\WINDOWS\system32\userinit.exe,C:\WINDOWS\system32\twex.exe,) Good: (userinit.exe) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully.

[potlatch]

Thankfully I’m not in River City, where ever that is, lol.

Night again, I’m signing off.

[devolve]

.

From “The Music Man” musical and film

“Trouble - I say we got trouble - Trouble in River City!”

My alleged lyrics are likely waaaay off!

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

Lol, my Yorkie is lying on his back here, sound asleep!
~~~
They ALL seem to like to sleep on their backs,,,LOL,,,
~~~
Registry Values Infected:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run\gadcom (Trojan.Agent) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully.

Registry Data Items Infected:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon\Userinit (Hijack.UserInit) -> Bad: (C:\WINDOWS\system32\userinit.exe,C:\WINDOWS\system32\twex.exe,) Good: (userinit.exe) -> Quarantined and deleted successfully.
~~~
FWIW :

http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0geu84vrnpJKCkA55VXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTBybnZlZnRlBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMQRjb2xvA2FjMgR2dGlkAw—/SIG=129644i8f/EXP=1232863151/**http%3a//www.spywareremove.com/removeTrojanAgentZD.html

http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0geu84vrnpJKCkA65VXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTByamlqaW9mBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMwRjb2xvA2FjMgR2dGlkAw—/SIG=12bjgkp1p/EXP=1232863151/**http%3a//www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic174588.html

http://rds.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0geu84vrnpJKCkA.ZVXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTBzdTNjcXU5BHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMTAEY29sbwNhYzIEdnRpZAM-/SIG=129ji2vqf/EXP=1232863151/**http%3a//www.2-spyware.com/remove-trojan-agent-azb.html
~~~

Just some info on that Kootie,,,

Looks like it's hard to get rid of...:0/...(System Restore?)

[potlatch]

[My alleged lyrics are likely waaaay off!]
I doubt it, but how’s your ‘tune’? snicker.

[potlatch]

Bada bing
And to Michelle it would be “Bada Bling”..

[Kevmo]

The times, they are a changin’

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2304850/posts?page=239#239

To: Star Traveler
The personal attacks will stop now or you can find another galaxy to troll, duuuuuuuuude. Your choice and I await your response.

239 posted on Thursday, July 30, 2009 7:30:08 PM by Admin Moderator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 232 | View Replies | Report Abuse]

[little jeremiah]

The last few days remind me of when the dark cloud from Mordor starts to lift, a fresh wind blows it away. The tide of war started to turn.

[altair]

You've missed a formulaic sort of topic-jacking.

I haven't had time to read all XXXX of the comments in this thread, but ... insert something that has been posted at least half dozen times earlier

Besides being insulting, (if you don't have time to read all the comments on a thread why should you assume anyone else should have time to read your comment?) it really mucks things up. There is some really good information in this week's epic Taitz/Kenyan CoLB thread, but unfortunately now it is buried amidst tons of duplicated stuff.

(And a belated "thank you" for an apparent solution to the JohnHuang2 duplicate article flood that regularly buried expat-FReeper-in-Asian-timezones threads on the front page).

[little jeremiah]

BTTT for reminding and learning.