Slashdot Mirror
Professional Internet Troll Sues Her Former Employer
baegucb sends a followup to the news from March that professional internet trolls were operating by the hundreds at factories in Russia. A woman hired to be one of these trolls, Lyudmila Savchuk, spoke to the media about her job, which led to her being fired. She's now suing her former employer and providing further details about how they operate. "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," she said. "I knew it was something bad, but of course I never suspected that it was this horrible and this large-scale." She describes how they flooded comment sections with pro-Putin responses, pushed out over 100 blog posts each shift, and doctored images to suit their employers' needs. Savchuk is now gathering activists to oppose this form of internet propaganda.
Stalin-- uh, I mean Putin -- would be proud of their efforts.
I hope she carries a portable geiger counter. Polonium 241 is nasty stuff.
AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
Why did Dice buy Slashdot?
So they could suppress discussions about their own scandals!
SHAME ON YOU DICE!
In Soviet Russia, internet trolls you
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
This looks a lot more like plain old propaganda. It's not really internet trolling in the traditional sense.
Is "internet troll' some sort of clickbait term? We heard it last year for people who were physically stalking women and it didn't make any sense then either.
I read the internet for the articles.
Trolling is a art.
It's amusing that in the comments on this article about pro-Russia propaganda-trolls, most of the comments are by the very pro-Russia propaganda trolls that the article exposes, belittling the article and blaming the west
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
If I get hired by these guys, do you think I have a shot at the Slashdot gig?
Imagine getting paid for
* First posts
* In Soviet Russia jokes
* Natalie Portman/Hot grits
* Old Ike stories
A good goatse redirect should pay big bucks!
I kind of have this idea that the comments section on CNN.com or foxnews.com is all troll bots. Right wing troll bots arguing with left wing troll bots arguing with agent provocateur right wing troll bots pretending to be deranged left wingers arguing with agent provocateur left wing troll bots pretending to be deranged right wingers.
Basically, the internet is trolls all the way down.
The alternative, that those are real people expressing their actual opinions, is too horrifying to contemplate.
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
If they're also disrupting online discourse like the CIA does, then that part could be called trolling, but from the description it looks like they are mostly propagandists who engage in astroturfing.
We call them trolls. George Orwell used the term 'Ministry of Truth'. Please refresh my memory, what term do we use for 'dystopian'?
What Snowden is doing with his time in prison, I mean Russia.. Working at a "technology" firm, making blog posts to keep Putin in power... Poor guy. It's just another way to make little rocks out of big ones...
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
...now I'd like to see some of the same exposed among various right-wing trolls worldwide, particularly those of the Libertarian/NeoLiberal bent.
I think paid online propaganda like this (though not all quite in this fashion) is now a worldwide problem, with very little light shone on it thus far.
Sounds like a modern Whispering Campaign
to me.
are called shills.
Don't waste your vote! Vote for whoever you want, unless you live in a swing state it won't matter anyways
That's why I only read Slashdot. I have it on good authority that we're all nothing but modified chatbots and Markov text generators.
In China, the regime has been paying trolls for years now.
I see Youtube comments and forum chat as a way for people in other countries to practice their language skills.
Start small, when they improve they move up to a better site, and eventually are selling gold in WoW or something. :-)
I have seen on various non-tech forums some extremely biased and even absurd views from a very obvious pro-Russian government position. All these accounts seemed to work in unison, with the same talking points and a very clear agenda. The fact that their agenda was so clear and transparent is the reason why many forum patrons call them "putlerbot" and "Kremlin's sockpuppets". I thought that Putin most likely would not waste money on such nonsense, but I did find the comments humorous.
But now I am starting to think that these... "people" aren't just utterly delusional Internet users from Russia, but actual, paid-for, managed and directed sockpuppets.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
What reason did you have to think that a professional politician wouldn't hire professional propagandists? Was Vladimir Putin's reputation too pristine to contemplate such a deal?
I read the internet for the articles.
I really hate how the term troll is now being used to cover anything you don't like or agree with, and now apparently astroturfing/sock puppets. Which sucks, because now we need a new term for internet troll.
Soulskill, you've been around tech long enough to see this with hacker/cracker and on and on, no need to contribute to this trend, friend!
is a troll/propaganda/sock-puppet, too.
Not really, no. Russian government shills are only used inside the country, to calm down dissent. They won't do their work on any English language website - what for? Basically, if you don't speak Russian, you won't see them. The only exception might be Serbia, but my guess is, you don't speak Serbian either.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
I wonder if and when a whistleblower will speak out on the organized liberal agenda trolling done in communities like reddit, gawker, and twitter.
http://i.cubeupload.com/T6cyLu.png
they are "shills", just like their American counter-parts that try to control opinion on forums like Reddit etc. It's sad how the narrative is that USA is good and Russia is bad, and that we don't see any articles on how the U.S gov is doing the same thing.
This was Truth. Pravda style!
mi, crashmarik, cuiderwolf, phantomfive, flyhelicopters
feel free to add to the list!
I don't why , but I feel like that's important to point out. Don't think these don't exist in America. Both party's use them. Pro-guns and Pro-pot lobbies have a huge presence on the web.
You mean to tell me I could have been paid for my internet activities all these years?!? That's fucked up.
p.s. - systemd!
Agree completely. Slashdot itself is flooded with pro-USgov shills every time there is an Edward Snowden/Bradley Manning/Wikileaks story.
Unless they've been deleted somehow (Slashdot wouldn't do that, would they?), none of the posts prior to yours in this thread appears to be pro-Russian propaganda-trolls. There's a Stalin/Putin comparison (with a OT subthread ranting about Dice), a OT rant about Dice, an "In Soviet Russia" joke, a post distinguishing internet trolling from plain old propaganda (with an OT subthread ranting about Dice), and an AC calling trolling an artform. What's pro-Russian in there?
-Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
"I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
Already modded so have to be anon.
If you look at any article talking about Russia's invasion of Ukraine you will see the comments infested with Russian trolls based out of St. Petersburg. They use every excuse they are told to use trying to explain away the hundreds of dead Russian soldiers (killed in training accidents over a 2 month period according to them), the amount of brand new equipment the Russian-backed rebels have and continue to get, even if the Ukrainian army never had such equipment (they raided weapons depots and now manufacture tanks, artillery and ammunition on their own despite having almost no manufacturing capabilities), the captured Russian soldiers (they weren't really soldiers. They left the army right before they were captured and were only "vacationing" in Ukraine or "volunteering" to fight which is why they brought along their tanks, artillery and BUK missile systems).
It's quite funny, at time, reading their completely fabricated and unbelievable stories of how everyone but Putin is to blame for Russia's problems. Even when Putin came out and stated categorically he ordered Russian troops to take over Crimea the trolls denied Putin's own words. Apparently not only is everything coming from the West a lie, but so are the words of their dear leader. In their minds, everything is a lie.
I read something the other day which helps to explain the Russian mind set. The Grapes of Wrath was shown as a movie to the Russians many decades ago (30s?). It was supposed to be an exercise in how bad capitalism was. The problem was, at the end of the movie it was shown that even the poorest American could afford to buy their own car so the Russian authorities banned the showing of the movie. They needed to keep up the lie about the evils of the West so like Putin has done by banning the mention of how many Russian soldiers have died during the invasion of Ukraine, including preventing the mothers and fathers from speaking about their dead sons, Russia needs to keep its people believing in lies because if they knew the truth they would realize how backwards their country is and why they will never be taken seriously by anyone.
Now I have to wonder if all the stories and images of Putin being a general bad-ass are real or if they're all just a carefully orchestrated p.r. campaign.
The problem about propaganda, especially in this day and age, is that everyone does it. I wouldn't be too surprised if the same shit goes down on our side of the fence. Just 'cause our media are "free" doesn't mean that they have to tell the truth. It only means their lies may be different from the government's.
Seriously, I'd pay for a halfway decent, balanced NEWS system that gives me news instead of propaganda of this or that flavor. How long 'til the definition of "impartial" is to watch both sides of the propaganda in the vain hope to maybe find the truth in the blend?
Journalism is dead. What matters is sensationalism and entertainment.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Not really, no. Russian government shills are only used inside the country, to calm down dissent.
How in the hell do you know this? Is it more likely that hundreds/thousands of Russian citizens are utterly delusional to the point of insanity, all the while being perfectly Internet savvy, or that there are propaganda firms working for Putin to control the Western public opinion regarding things such as Ukraine? I find the latter much more likely.
The only exception might be Serbia, but my guess is, you don't speak Serbian either.
Tu si se zajebo. Sasvim solidno "citam" srpski i ostale bivse Yugo jezike, osim makedonskog.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Dice is currently involved in transitioning SourceForge's magnetic niches. In order to synergize such a leading-edge platform while integrating web-enabled e-tailers and benchmarking frictionless vortals we had to postpone synthesizing out-of-the-box convergence.
I hope this clears things up.
Fifty years of Yippie! 1968-2018
Will the goatse guy now have a case?
Well, first of all, Russians who actually speak English can get a much better job than that. Second, the government propaganda in the Western mass media has shaped the public opinion regarding Russia for over a century now. It would be a waste of time. Third, Putin stopped caring about what West thinks about Russia two years ago. Previously you could see that he sort of tried to build a working relationship with EU and USA, but it was very much an one-sided effort. So he stopped caring and annexed Crimea. And fourth, you underestimate the number of internet savvy Russians, I think because this part of the internet exists outside of what most people usually see - same for Chinese internet.
There is no need for this kind of vulgar speech. It is good for you that you can read Serbian. Also in cyrillic or is this the reason why you have a problem with Macedonian? Because for me it is not more difficult than understanding Serbian (I speak Russian pretty well and also have learned Czech).
Anyway, then you might have seen a Putin paid shill indeed.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
She will shortly be gunned down by "Chechen terrorists" in a "random act of violence"
Putin will not be involved at all
Is it possible that the alleged adware or alleged malware packaged with Filezilla led to some of the major security breaches?
Can Slashdot do some investigative reporting and look into this possibility?
There is no need for this kind of vulgar speech. It is good for you that you can read Serbian. Also in cyrillic or is this the reason why you have a problem with Macedonian? Because for me it is not more difficult than understanding Serbian (I speak Russian pretty well and also have learned Czech).
Anyway, then you might have seen a Putin paid shill indeed.
Ucio sam fiziku i matematiku citajuci cirilicu jos u dalekim 70-im. Srpsku tj. Vukovu cirilicu. A sto se tice "there is no need for this kind of vulgar speech", tvoj uzak pogled na zivot me nimalo ne tangira. Ja i dalje govorim na isti nacin sa mojim drugarima iz Srbije kao sto sam govorio jos prije rata. Za mene su lazi puno gore nego psovke. In fact, I do find it very true that people who swear are more trustworthy than the ones who feign offense at expletives.
Also, if you weren't so narrow-minded (or perhaps uneducated in Serbian language and culture), you would know that "zajebo si se" is not an expletive intended to offend the "receiver" - it is a fun way people in Serbia say "you are/were wrong". I would LOVE it if there were a similar expression, with similar connotations, in English or the other four languages I speak.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
(Please Putin, don''t feed my baby to the dingoes) )
excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
The closest equivalent in English is "you have fucked up".
You are welcome.
And my Serbian friends never use this kind of speech when they think I can hear them - they are well aware that I understand what they say. You may speak with your friends however you like, but I am not your friend.
"It's such a fine line between stupid and clever" -- David St. Hubbins, Spinal Tap
It's not just Russia. I see coordinated posts come in, supporting a variety of agendas. It's like a plague of locusts. Expect to see more and more campaign money dedicated toward this in the future.
I suspect the parent means the comments attached to TFA, not the comments here at Slashdot.
And here comes the USgov shill modbomb. Bravo for not being any better than the side you're claiming to fight.
Treat your grunts like shit and they walk out. That may seem fine if you're a call center, but maybe think twice when the grunts are handling sensitive information? Like the minutiae and specifics of your semisecret propaganda machine that wants to be somewhat discrete and less-known?
No, go ahead and treat them like shit, it's not like burning those bridges and begging for disloyalty could ever come back to bite you in the
oh.
Right, I was referring to the article referenced, not the slashdot thread.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
Have you noticed what happens here any time there's an article about Russia doing something? Until recently, I would never have thought Russia thought Slashdot was worth troll-bombing. It seems to me that there's a slightly different mindset among the trolls/shills: they give me the impression that they're not used to an information-rich environment with modern Western cynicism, something like some of the Arab propaganda.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
These shills, as you call them, can still be pro US government... They are just pro government like it is intended to be - one that is open, honorable, and follows the constitution with ethically sound judgments. A dissenting opinion is probably the most intense form of patriotism. I realize that probably does not fit your narrative but it is true. I am very patriotic but I feel very strongly about the inferior service it has provided in the past forty years.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
My apologies for misunderstanding. (I was puzzled trying to figure out what the motive would be for making such an obviously-falsified claim as you seemed to be... makes much more sense now).
-Forrest Cameranesi, Geek of all Trades
"I am Sam. Sam I am. I do not like trolls, flames, or spam."
They are probably not all real, they are probably not all bad-ass, and they are probably not all a PR campaign. Probably many are doctored, probably many are created for PR campaigns, and probably many are edited to make them more bad-ass. Where many you can change to most and it is likely correct.
KGIII
Posting as AC because /. is run by absolutist ninnies who seem to think I have been to conversational today.
...while Obama (and everyone else) are doing the same shit.
That's a great link, AC... but it says the opposite of what you said it does. It does not at any point say Obama is doing this-- in fact, the one "sock puppet army" that it says it has unmasked is actually against Obama.
From page 4 of the article you reference, referring to what that article calls a "sock puppet army" and the article here calls "professional internet trolls":
"These accounts had consistent multi-faceted views: They were generally pro-Palestine and anti-Israel; they wrote “We (USA)” to present themselves as Western; were against Syria and US President Barrack Obama, and attempted to project themselves as pro-Islam with derogatory comments against Christianity.
“Who is this sock puppet army? It’s difficult to speculate"
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
Astroturfers != trolls.
This is as stupid as every Fox or CNN commentary that calls anyone posting anything 'naughty' or bothersome a troll, or anyone under 30 as "gen-x".
Christ, people. If this site can't get it straight, what hope do we have that anyone else would?
-Styopa
The interesting point is that Russian zealots online do have their US opponents. Are the later paid by the CIA or did the USA managed to find propaganda workforce for free?
You're joking, right? You have to wonder that?
Bit arrogant, aren't you? You're definitely losing the little quibble you're in, right now. (I say losing because you are clearly trying to "win" it, somehow, for some reason. Anyhow, you're not winning it.)
You should have been happy having job. Now you have nothing.
O RLY? As a Finn you see them frequently in the commenting section of any popular newspaper website. If the article is about Russia, the shills will be there. Very amusing to see the exact same comment, word to word, posted at the same time by two different "people".
Certain IRC channels are being interfered by US professional trolls. They work in teams and create fake discussions to influence and to bait out radicals.
Here is one log of two of them trying to bait with supposedly secret information on drone technology. Notice that the main one mirrors radical ideas as bait, too.
http://pastebin.com/sfnkmDFD
I imagine that this is done to prevent another Snowden.
"You should never doubt what nobody is sure about." -- Willy Wonka
Remember, he is KGB missionary. Bold one.
Servant of karma
It would only be off topic if Dice weren't suppressing the biggest stories in the FOSS world this week.
They are suppressing it because it reflects badly on them. We have nowhere else to discuss it, so like Beta it'll get discussed everywhere until they finally listen.
SJW n. One who posts facts.
The closest equivalent in English is "you have fucked up".
Nope - "fucked up" has a much more negative connotation than "zajebo si se". Most Serbians say "zajebo sam se" quite often in fact, because it's such a jocular and mild term that it's quite OK to use it on oneself.
And my Serbian friends never use this kind of speech when they think I can hear them - they are well aware that I understand what they say. You may speak with your friends however you like, but I am not your friend.
Maybe they just don't like you very much, i.e. you didn't integrate with them and their culture too well.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
Right you are. But I think Finns, both old and young, are too sophisticated for Russian sockpuppets. The Russian PR agencies should hire more educated shills if they intend to "direct them" at the Finnish websphere.
Muuten, terveiset Helsingistä.
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
In fact, I do find it very true that people who swear are more trustworthy than the ones who feign offense at expletives.
You have a limited view of people. Very little offense from expletives is feigned. And people who swear are less likely to care about what others think, including whether people think they are liars. I have found cursing people to lie far more.
Why do you *think* I asked this question here MANY times to be 'snuffed' constantly: Why can't we SEE who UPMODS or DOWNMODS us? It's a simple question, & I've gotten bs answers OR downmodded away every time (see below)!
It's a feature of other discussion boards that helps ferret out sockpuppets + trolls.
Don't you have enough of a problem here with that issue that you want to do something about it?
Don't hand me that garbage about "it would start a flame war" stupidity as a weak counter-point to that OR that the moderators alone can "handle it" and they obviously can't or it wouldn't be going on @ all: You have flame wars here anyways by the truckload as well as sockpuppets in the same amounts & I'd also *think* they'd want 'flamewars' for the reasoning of "controversy is good" since it raises participation and thus, views, However, probably ONLY when it fits "the agenda" around here ONLY, that is (from their "pov" I'd think @ least since views = profit etc./et al).
This measure/change would stop it by allowing users to see the patterns of abuse either way (sockpuppeteers upmodding themselves using sockpuppet fake accounts that they "farm karma" with as well plus using modpoints gained from it for downmodding opponents of theirs they cannot factually logically disprove).
I would like to see a discussion about this with the members of slashdot (which of course, the sockpuppeteers will be out in full force against this).
Should be interesting to see.
However: Apparently, there are those who don't WANT that discussion, OR for this to be seen @ all, period.
The results so far, speak for me!
E.G.-> I submitted this before here 10 times now, only to get the outright deleted... why?
http://slashdot.org/submission...
http://slashdot.org/submission...
http://slashdot.org/submission....
http://slashdot.org/submission...
http://slashdot.org/submission...
http://slashdot.org/submission...
http://slashdot.org/submission...
http://slashdot.org/submission...
http://slashdot.org/submission...
(This will, no doubt, be a 12th time I am predicting)
My single "naysayer" from the 2nd time above was easily defeated, point-by-"so-called 'point'" of his & he ran when confronted directly on it -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p...
My single other "naysayer" from the 8th time also was defeated, defeating himself on the very point I made in this post many times:
The "downmod truncheon" is used in lieu of conversation here unjustifiably.
Only those using sockpuppets would fear this ability to see who issues upmods or downmods here after all, & he CLEARLY did instantly downmodding my post -> http://slashdot.org/comments.p...
(Yes folks: you can ALWA
I thought that Putin most likely would not waste money on such nonsense, but I did find the comments humorous.
But now I am starting to think that these... "people" aren't just utterly delusional Internet users from Russia, but actual, paid-for, managed and directed sockpuppets.
I think it's a bit of both.
There are wildly delusional advocates for almost any position, I don't see why Russian foreign policy would be any different. Especially when you consider that Russia does have some legitimate grievances against the West (I get why people wanted the NATO expansion, but expanding an anti-Russia alliance into the former USSR was more than a bit provocative).
At the end of the day Russians are just like anyone else, and they'll be willing to swallow a boat-load of BS so they can cheer for Russia. Some of them will go online and undergo crazy rationalizations on comment boards to convince people why Russia is in the right. They're largely following the same pool of newspapers, blogs, and pundits, so they'll all repeat the same arguments and crazy theories.
I have no idea how to differentiate these people from the actual trolls.
I stole this Sig
It would only be off topic if Dice weren't suppressing the biggest stories in the FOSS world this week.
They are suppressing it because it reflects badly on them. We have nowhere else to discuss it, so like Beta it'll get discussed everywhere until they finally listen.
I would if had points but it will do no good as they'll just keep removing them as admins have unlimited resource there essentially, as it is clear they're doing watching it for past few minutes alone. This post will go as others like it have. Time to take this discussion somewhere it can't be censored. You'd think they'd learn.
What's the pay like? i've seen some beauts online who i could refer...