Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm
theguardian.com
Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm
1–10 of 333 posts
Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm
#2This is CRAZY.
How the fuck do you explain this level of trolling to your parents! That this is why they shouldn’t repeat neo-Nazi Facebook garbage.
Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm
#3I highly recommend reading their statement, which is btw the only content on their site - https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=pl&tl=en&u=http%3A...
Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm
#4I really don't like PR operations like this, but here's a thought experiment:
Presumably it's OK to voice one's opinions on social media, but:
1. Is it acceptable for private interests to do the same?
2. At what point does something turn from personal opinion to propaganda?
3. Is it more problematic that a private entity (e.g. a PR firm) is _pretending_ to express an honest opinion? Would this be acceptable if this were a group of up-front political activists instead?
Personally, I'd draw the line at private interests trying to influence public opinion. Sadly, this is a process as old as the hills. Marketing and propaganda have existed for a long time, it just seems like it's become much harder to pin it for what it is in the era of social media.
Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm
#5I really don't like PR operations like this, but here's a thought experiment: Presumably it's OK to voice one's opinions on social media, but: 1. Is it acceptable for private interests to do the same? 2. At what point does something turn from personal opinion to propaganda? 3. Is it more problematic that a private entity (e.g. a PR firm) is _pretending_ to express an honest opinion? Would this be acceptable if this w…
I've worked with organizations that encouraged their staff to promote their company on social media. This seems fine. However if that staff member then went out and created 10 profiles for made up people, that would be different. So I think that's where I'd draw the line. Are you posting as yourself on social media, or as a bunch of sock puppets?
Its sort of the Citizens United argument we've had the US. Does money = speech? I would say it doesn't and democracy depends on opinions being represented in good faith, and not just who can purchase the biggest megaphone.
Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm
#6Does anybody have any recommended marketing firms for these campaigns, aside from Cat@Net mentioned in this article?
It has been incredibly hard for me to google, and any PR agency I've worked with isn't equipped to do it.
Software firms have been decent but are still developing everything from scratch. They don't have automated ways to manage many profiles at once, so you end up paying for that and then still having nobody that speaks English well enough to control the accounts or even pre-write their statements.
And other ill-equipped groups such as in Malaysia and India - and also cheap labor across Europe - are not good enough at colloquial American English
> Cat@Net strongly denied it was a “troll farm”
Exhibit A, it is incredibly hard to google for troll farms
Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm
#7I really don't like PR operations like this, but here's a thought experiment: Presumably it's OK to voice one's opinions on social media, but: 1. Is it acceptable for private interests to do the same? 2. At what point does something turn from personal opinion to propaganda? 3. Is it more problematic that a private entity (e.g. a PR firm) is _pretending_ to express an honest opinion? Would this be acceptable if this w…
I've worked with organizations that encouraged their staff to promote their company on social media. This seems fine. However if that staff member then went out and created 10 profiles for made up people, that would be different. So I think that's where I'd draw the line. Are you posting as yourself on social media, or as a bunch of sock puppets? Its sort of the Citizens United argument we've had the US. Does money =…
Citizens United totally slipped my mind. Excellent point on the money = speech argument.
A thought I had reading your comment was that what money != speech, money _does_ = reach (sock puppets, marketing campaigns, etc). That said, I have no idea how we can really disentangle the two while we're hearing about things from our own social circles.
Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm
#8I really don't like PR operations like this, but here's a thought experiment: Presumably it's OK to voice one's opinions on social media, but: 1. Is it acceptable for private interests to do the same? 2. At what point does something turn from personal opinion to propaganda? 3. Is it more problematic that a private entity (e.g. a PR firm) is _pretending_ to express an honest opinion? Would this be acceptable if this w…
Disclaimer: I'm not saying any of these except the first has happened
- Tory Bruno (CEO of ULA) promoting ULA on reddit under his own name providing useful information: Definitely ok (thanks Tory! https://old.reddit.com/user/torybruno)
- Tory Bruno promoting ULA on reddit under a pseudonym: Almost acceptable, not the best since he has money involved and isn't disclosing it, but he probably honestly thinks most of what he is saying.
- A PR person hired to promote ULA promoting ULA on reddit under disclosing that they are a PR person: Mostly acceptable, not the best since they probably aren't at all genuine
- A PR person hired to promote ULA promoting ULA on reddit under not disclosing that they are a PR person or associated with the company: Mostly unacceptable, this isn't personal opinion but paid propaganda, and it shouldn't masquerade as personal opinion.
- A PR person hired to promote ULA promoting ULA on reddit under 10 different pseudonyms: Completely unacceptable, this should probably be made outright illegal. The only purpose of using pseudonyms like this is to trick people into thinking you have support that you do not.
The article is talking about the last case, shades of grey exist, but this one is known as pitch black.
Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm
#9Does anybody have any recommended marketing firms for these campaigns, aside from Cat@Net mentioned in this article? It has been incredibly hard for me to google, and any PR agency I've worked with isn't equipped to do it. Software firms have been decent but are still developing everything from scratch. They don't have automated ways to manage many profiles at once, so you end up paying for that and then still having…
This is basically PR and propaganda. Any companies you find that specialize in social media will probably have a process, and perhaps software systems, to manage this.
These companies are doing what they've always done: influencing public opinion. My bugbear here is that they're now doing so without the need to slap their name on endorsements they're making for some private or political interest.
Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm
#10I really don't like PR operations like this, but here's a thought experiment: Presumably it's OK to voice one's opinions on social media, but: 1. Is it acceptable for private interests to do the same? 2. At what point does something turn from personal opinion to propaganda? 3. Is it more problematic that a private entity (e.g. a PR firm) is _pretending_ to express an honest opinion? Would this be acceptable if this w…
What's acceptable depends entirely on the terms of service for each specific social media platform. It's not reasonable to discuss all of social media in aggregate.