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BP Hired Company To Troll Users Who Left Critical Comments
An anonymous reader sends this news from Al-Jazeera:
"BP has been accused of hiring internet 'trolls' to purposefully attack, harass, and sometimes threaten people who have been critical of how the oil giant has handled its disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. The oil firm hired the international PR company Ogilvy & Mather to run the BP America Facebook page during the oil disaster, which released at least 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf in what is to date the single largest environmental disaster in U.S. history. The page was meant to encourage interaction with BP, but when people posted comments that were critical of how BP was handling the crisis, they were often attacked, bullied, and sometimes directly threatened. ... BP's 'astroturfing' efforts and use of 'trolls' have been reported as pursuing users' personal information, then tracking and posting IP addresses of users, contacting their employers, threatening to contact family members, and using photos of critics' family members to create false Facebook profiles, and even threatening to affect the potential outcome of individual compensation claims against BP."
Where do i get a gig like this?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
They should have hired Dice.com. I hear they have great information on technology and technology jobs. A++++. Would use their site again.
So do they apply for the job? I wonder if they have to list references or if being a frequent poster of reddit's /r/atheism or 4chan is enough.
They should have spent it on coming up with more ways of saying "We're sorry".
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
If they were only trolling posters on the Facebook page, how would they figure out their IP addresses? Impossible unless they hacked into Facebook.
"Reputation managers" (Aka professional lairs) are everywhere. You'll see a lot of them here on slashdot. Remember all those copy-pasted shill posts apologizing for windows 8? That was a riot. Those key phrases and talking points stick out like a sore thumb.
Or do the oil companies pay extra?
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
Yeah - it's just those revenge for those two wars they lost to us.
Wrong. It was within the US exclusive economic zone in the Gulf of Mexico.
How dare you even IMPLY such a thing?
"the single largest environmental disaster in U.S. history."
The oil spill did not happen in the United States. It happened in International Waters under the supervision of a British petroleum company.
so where did all those tar balls go?
How much did you get paid to make this post?!?
Even if that is technically true, then it's still correct to say "larger than any environmental disaster in U.S. history". I'm not sure that's any better. You work for BP, don't you?
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
An anonymous source working for Anonymous claims the group is not worried as the emerging trolls are "newfags [who] can't triforce". Some experts, however, are not as confident on the group's ability to adapt to the increasingly competitive trolling market. Anonymous has yet to comment on the matter.
It isn't even technically true. Macondo Prospect is not international waters.
I just want to say that, though I often attack, bully, and sometimes insult people on this very forum, I'm not a paid shill.
It's more of a "calling".
(Wait... what? I can also get *paid*?)
Wouldn't you be surprised if many companies did not do it? Large companies? Politicians? Governments?
How many comments on Slashdot are astroturf?
An awful lot of the oil, and environmental damage, was on the Gulf Coast. Not just U S waters, but US soil.
Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. (Isaac Asimov)
"Troll" and "astroturf" don't even begin to describe that. A far more apt label would be "mercenary".
They did the last part themselves, anyways.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
"the single largest environmental disaster in U.S. history."
The oil spill did not happen in the United States. It happened in International Waters under the supervision of a British petroleum company.
Really dude? Is this important?
Is there some official administrative "stamp" of accuracy for environmental disasters? Is there some "office of deflecting bad opinion" that is responsible for keeping people accurate?
This sounds *exactly* like something a paid troll would say. "Ya know, Vietnam wasn't really a war" and such-like.
Your statement only serves to defuse public outrage. It helps those responsible avoid and minimize any sense of responsibility to the public. We should be holding their feet to the fire, not looking for ways to find the situation acceptable.
And to be more clearly on point, the drilling was overseen by the Minerals Management Service, a federal agency responsible for the safety protocols of the drilling at the time, and whose failure allowed the accident to happen. It was very much a US disaster.
Which country did it affect again? England?
single largest environmental disaster in U.S. history.
But the summary didn't say "U.S. waters" or "U.S. territory". It said "U.S. history". Regardless where it took place, with 11 Americans dead, millions more affected, and criminal convictions in US courts, it was a huge part of US history.
Two? The British won the war of 1812.
BP used the "xzvf" switches.
Bark less. Wag more.
Burning karma in hopes that a 6 year old, moderately active account will dispel accusations of "shill":
I'm most certainly no friend of BP's, but the evidence presented in the story really is not that compelling. People on the internet are huge dicks even without being paid to do it, and some people have a lot of time on their hands. Maybe some of them are family of BP workers, or grunt paper shufflers in the company, or just assholes, but none of the evidence seems worthy of this headline.
Intriguing, worth looking into? Sure. But if your headline is "BP did this" instead of "BP accused of this", you need a hell of a lot better documentation.
Alarmism helps no one.
Wrong. It was within the US exclusive economic zone in the Gulf of Mexico.
Also, while the epicenter was out at sea, the soiled beaches were much closer to the coastline.
I am not sure this is the worst environmental disaster. I would consider the extinction of the North American megafauna during the pleistocene to be worse.
I just thought it was an unusual number of trolls.
Now I find out they were PAID trolls.
Funny part: I used to own shares in BP/PLC.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
The article doesn't claim that BP did this, as the title in /. states, but rather mentions that BP has been accused of doing so to the Government Accountability Project. If the claim were true it doesn't seem to be a "smart" strategy for BP and somewhat flies in the face of their advertisement campaign and the amount of money they agreed to pay out. They might be stupid enough to cause a gigantic environmental disaster but are they stupid enough to be behind this?
Depends upon what you mean by "behind" -- likely, they paid the "image management firm" to "manage their image" -- and the firm they hired used these techniques when the standard ones weren't enough. I remember how fast BP was scrambling at the time; likely they hired the first firm that came recommended with good results and didn't take the time to do due diligence, as by then it would've been too late for their image.
- Using Facebook
- Using your real name on Facebook
- Using your real name anywhere on the Internet
- Posting personal information and pictures of yourself and family on the Internet
You get what you deserve.
Pedantic but this is not the definition of a troll at all. Steven King would be trolling in his grave if he'd heard this.
Summary: BP accused of hiring
Headline: BP hired
Why is where it originated relevant? It caused a great deal of environmental damage to places like Louisiana and Mississippi. I'm pretty sure those are in the United States. Regardless of where it came from, all that oil washing ashore caused an environmental disaster in the US.
A British company?
[source]
Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. - Ambrose Bierce
I would consider the extinction of the North American megafauna during the pleistocene to be worse.
While true, this is changing the subject, because it doesn't contradict the claim that "the single largest environmental disaster in U.S. history." The Pleistocene was prehistoric.
And the spilled oil washed up on the cost of Mongolia.
No, wait, that doesn't sound right. AH! It washed up on the gulf coast of.....The United States.
Ogilvy & Mather is well respect advertising firm with hundreds of offices and part of WPP, an even larger firm. No way are they "internet trolls". Running a webpage for BP, sure. Doing quasi-illegal stuff, they could get caught for and likely aren't being much paid for.... I really really doubt it.
Who's the idiot who modded this Informative? It's obviously trolling, which under most circumstances would be -1,Troll, but given the context, I think +1,Funny would have been more appropriate.
I'm on 3 other forums pretty regularly and it's obvious that people get paid to troll. There was bunch of people trolling the Yahoo Games chats during the elections; including a guy who seemed to be there 24-7, spouting political stuff and even with a trolling political name. There are people who do nothing but get on and dump articles and quotes from partisan websites and radio hosts.
What sealed it for me was during one of the 2012 conventions, ALL of the trolling stopped and JUST for the days of the convention.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
The US government should have seized all of their American assets and forced them into bankruptcy.
No company deserves to survive a screw-up of this magnitude.
Just trolling and threatening? It could have been much worse.
"largest environmental disaster in U.S. history" The Lakeview Gusher spill was larger in terms of tons of oil. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakeview_Gusher
I think the author meant "most expensive environmental disaster".
Al Jazeera is one of the most credible news sources around, and yes you prove Slashdot has plenty of fools.
And buy their gas. And CNN and the like will not rock the boat. It is a world where you can now do any bad thing you want and no one will really care. I just cant believe a society run in this manner will end well.
Fox News got caught doing the same thing.
Time makes more converts than reason
The BBC pay for people to support it on the Internet? Why would they do that? The only people they have to convince that they are doing a good job are government ministers who set the licence fee amount.
Worse than the one in Bhopal, India? Surely that must be part of US history! Oh, I get it get, if the disaster affects the US, regardless of where it happens it is part of the US history but not when the US company does it anywhere else!
Seriously, what the fuck will it take to get a high-level executive of one of these companies to see the inside of a jail cell for an extended period of time?
"Be particularly skeptical when presented with evidence confirming what you already believe." -
Where the fuck did you see me ranking the BP spill over Bhopal? Were you always this obtuse or did you have to go to a special school for it?
Person A said: "single largest environmental disaster in U.S. history".
Person B said: "The oil spill did not happen in the United States."
I said: "Even if it's outside US territory it's still part of U.S. history."
Me correcting person B doesn't mean I agree or disagree with person B.
Me correcting person B doesn't mean I agree or disagree with person A.
It just means I corrected person B and nothing else.
I seriously doubt if BP or Ogilvy & Mather (18,000 employees) would do something this stupid. While Al Jazeera is as fair and balanced as Fox News, they could have some conflict of interest with BP.
Yes, Dave, it does.
By the way, your front door was unlocked again last night.
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
You do realize that you are trying to rationalize with an anonymous "sexual intellect" correct?
"sexual intellect" == "fucking know it all"
-The wise argue that there are few absolutes, the fool argues that there are no probabilities.
I have a suggestion...
Why is Snark Required?
Uh, no. We kicked enough ass at the Battle of Baltimore and the Battle of Plattsburgh to get the bastards to leave. The War of 1812 made the British take American sovereignty seriously, to end impressment of American sailors and illegal blockades against American shipping.
Hell, one ship from Baltimore was enough to keep the whole British shipping industry peeing its pants.
I know our Canadian friends like to pretend that they won because we didn't roll over them, but the point of the war was never to annex Canada. Canada was just the closest part of the UK to hit in a land war.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
Hey, it's Twirlip of the Mists!
I would consider the extinction of the North American megafauna during the pleistocene to be worse.
You have a strange definition of "in US history"...
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
Worst environmental disaster in US history? Not remotely.
The Dust Bowl takes the prize with no legitimate contenders.
In the Gulf of Mexico, the massive dead zone from fertilizer runoff from the Mississippi river has caused way more devastation than the BP oil spill.
Among offshore oil spills, the Exxon Valdez killed orders of magnitude more animal deaths and environmental damage. In the Gulf of Mexico, the Ixtoc I spill was far more damaging (being much closer to shore).
Among all oil spills, the Lakeview Gusher in 1910 was the largest by far.
Why can't people ever write about a on-going or recent oil spill without claiming that it is the worst ever?
http://webutation.com/
.
This links you to a site which helps businesses deal with blogs such as http://www.ripoffreport.com/
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
Here in slashdot every time Microsoft is bashed or we talk about Windows Phones, either we are modded down or people say that piece of turd that is Windows mobile is better than iPad. So it is not only BP that hires trolls.
The war might have had the effect of making the British take the Americans seriously, but it didn't cause the end of the blockade or the impressment. The blockade ended before the Americans declared war (though the Americans weren't aware of the decision), and the impressment ended when the war in Europe ended.
The only thing the Americans could have achieved by the war was the annexation of British North America, and they didn't. They didn't lose so badly that they had to give up territory (that's what Plattsburgh and Baltimore achieved), but they still lost.
Amazing how the pollution didn't wash ashore but stayed exactly 12 miles away from the coast.
If this had happened a few years ago when they were still calling themselves BP/Amoco we could divert these discussions a lot easier. For those wondering, Amoco is short for American Oil Company.
Is 1563649 a prime number?
Ah you've discovered an irrelevant pedant troll. Though common, it's one of my favourites.
Nice reply. It's going into my "quotes" file - thanks!
Don't bring clever to a stupid fight. You'll lose and get your clever all dirty and covered in dumb. The fact that the BBC is not a commercial entity is apparently lost on these folks, who are undoubtedly well-meaning yet woefully misinformed.
That's retarded. The disaster was a thing. Events are things. Events do things. That's not anthropomorphism, that's how the English language works. "The reaction released 10 Joules". "The car crash caused a 5 car pile-up". "The meteor strike leveled a city". "The oil disaster released oil into the Gulf". I don't see anything even slightly awkward about any of those.
And hey, we got to burn down Toronto. So there's that.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
Sure - just like the Confederates won that little dust-up later on, right?
A lot of them seem anxious to pay for the opportunity.
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
Toronto's mayor is calling, he needs a distraction . . .
"Think about how stupid the average person is. Now, realise that half of them are dumber than that." - George Carlin
Isn't the reality that the British Empire had less resistance elsewhere, and just stopped making a big effort against America? There are cultural reasons they might have not had a stomach for really putting it to America, when they has bigger targets in the rest of the World. Yes, technically the war of 1812 ended in a draw and don't forget that the British tried to drive a wedge in North America during the U.S. Civil War of 1861-5, but overall conflict with America got put at a lower priority.