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Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm

theguardian.com

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Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm

#131

Post by fauigerzigerk »

wpietri wrote: post #91
TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Google has largely solved the spam problem for end users. What I can't figure out is why platforms like Facebook and Twitter couldn't mark these sort of posts as, essentially, spam, by the same sort of rules and heuristics as email spam. Why can't they look at the metadata of verified troll-farm-generated clickbait/junk/spam/fake news, and make their own filters, and demote that content? Simple. Because they're makin…

In addition to the making-money thing, I think it's often a class-interest thing. As a recipient of the harms of paid disinformation, I'm perfectly happy to ban it all, and with stiff legal penalties. But if you're a billionaire (or work for one), then banning paid disinformation means you're giving up a tool of power, and taking power away from the people you regularly hobnob with.

As a billionaire your interests are a bigger target for well funded or well organised opponents as well. And you probably have a lot of other ways at your disposal to exert influence. So I don't see a net benefit of disinformation specifically for billionaires.

Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm

#132

Post by ivanhoe »

RobertRoberts wrote: post #69
Twixes wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do nuclear power trolls look like? I support nuclear power (instead of fossil fuels and in addition to renewables) and, sadly, I haven't got a cent from the nuclear industry yet.

You will see "we need nuclear power because it's the greenest/most renewable/etc... energy" type posts dispersed all through social media almost anywhere there's a discussion about climate change, renewable energy, etc... Even if the original topic was only tangentially related it will get changed. A post with puppy photos can turn into a climate change discussion because "nuclear power is so green". It's so common n…

Frankly, pro-solar people started doing that first, but yes pro-nuclear internet warriors are catching up. I find it useful, how ever strange that might sound - it actually promotes the dialog. Unfortunately in todays highly populist politics the loudest group usually gets to shape the public policies, so fighting noise with noise equalizes the outcome, and thus increases chances that someone in the end will actually consult some experts too.

Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm

#133

Post by mistermann »

nkozyra wrote: post #43

This really is a critical juncture for the internet; the moment wherein the democratization of information has empowered those with the resources to overwhelm the signal with noise. I wish I saw a way out.

> I wish I saw a way out.

The only plausible way out I see is first recognizing the degree to which what we consider "facts" and "factual" discourse and beliefs to actually be vague, often incorrect opinions and memes.

If one group of people of above average intelligence could learn and maintain a disciplined approach to reading and discussing issues and the news, carefully distinguishing between objective and comprehensive factual statements versus discussing things in lazy, non-comprehensive, meme and heuristic driven "facts", acknowledging the ever-present complexity, uncertainty, and nuance, might this group of people be able to finally recognize the degree to which we are mostly arguing about models and depictions of reality, rather than reality itself?

I think it is certainly possible, but it seems this idea invokes disgust in most people, of all political stripes.

Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm

#134

Post by [deleted] »

RobertRoberts wrote: post #69
Twixes wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do nuclear power trolls look like? I support nuclear power (instead of fossil fuels and in addition to renewables) and, sadly, I haven't got a cent from the nuclear industry yet.

You will see "we need nuclear power because it's the greenest/most renewable/etc... energy" type posts dispersed all through social media almost anywhere there's a discussion about climate change, renewable energy, etc... Even if the original topic was only tangentially related it will get changed. A post with puppy photos can turn into a climate change discussion because "nuclear power is so green". It's so common n…

[deleted]

Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm

#135

Post by tnolet »

emptybits wrote: post #88

> “For them it was just work and that’s it.” Is it? If someone's job is spewing cleverly provocative, disruptive, toxic, and intentionally negative messages all day ... does that edgy skill and behaviour not leak into their home or personal life? I understand, these workers need jobs and I'm sure some get quite proficient at trolling. But my gut says there will be personal side effects from reinforcing and working yo…

With the risk of pulling a Godwin, the “It’s just a job, so any ethics, morals or generally doing the right thing don’t apply” defense is getting kinda stale.

It’s one step away from “I was just following orders”

Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm

#136

Post by whamlastxmas »

kop316 wrote: post #59
RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote: post #56

It is not just foreign governments using paid trolls. Apparently Hilary Clinton used paid trolls against Bernie Sanders in 2016. https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-clinton-digital-troll... >Hillary Clinton's well-heeled backers have opened a new frontier in digital campaigning, one that seems to have been inspired by some of the Internet's worst instincts. Correct the Record, a super PAC coordinating with Clinton…

Yep. That was really bad on Reddit during the election. If you even broached certain topics about Hillary, it was downvoted/flagged right away. Then the day after the election, Those topics actually came up.

Also funny because one of the /r/politics rules was that you were not allowed to accuse someone of shilling. I just checked now and it's still one of the top rules. Given how pro-Hillary and anti-Sanders that sub became overnight, it seems that they were wanting to subdue the commentary on the proven paid influence HRC had.

Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm

#137

Post by SlowRobotAhead »

Gibbon1 wrote: post #92
kop316 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. That was really bad on Reddit during the election. If you even broached certain topics about Hillary, it was downvoted/flagged right away. Then the day after the election, Those topics actually came up.

The week after the election was interesting because the trolls didn't have new marching orders. So it was suddenly just random people.

Exactly. It was weird, a stark contrast to the months up before it. All of a sudden the political subs were... reasonable. I’d love to see a little more research into pre/post event stats.

Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm

#138

Post by SlowRobotAhead »

whamlastxmas wrote: post #136
kop316 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. That was really bad on Reddit during the election. If you even broached certain topics about Hillary, it was downvoted/flagged right away. Then the day after the election, Those topics actually came up.

Also funny because one of the /r/politics rules was that you were not allowed to accuse someone of shilling. I just checked now and it's still one of the top rules. Given how pro-Hillary and anti-Sanders that sub became overnight, it seems that they were wanting to subdue the commentary on the proven paid influence HRC had.

> Given how pro-Hillary and anti-Sanders that sub became overnight

I was there for that too. It literally was flip of a switch speed. One of the big turning points I saw regarding the election.

Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm

#139

Post by closetohome »

tnolet wrote: post #135
emptybits wrote: post #88

> “For them it was just work and that’s it.” Is it? If someone's job is spewing cleverly provocative, disruptive, toxic, and intentionally negative messages all day ... does that edgy skill and behaviour not leak into their home or personal life? I understand, these workers need jobs and I'm sure some get quite proficient at trolling. But my gut says there will be personal side effects from reinforcing and working yo…

With the risk of pulling a Godwin, the “It’s just a job, so any ethics, morals or generally doing the right thing don’t apply” defense is getting kinda stale. It’s one step away from “I was just following orders”

I've always said if it's your job to be an asshole, that doesn't mean you aren't an asshole, it just means you're an asshole with a job.

Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm

#140

Post by bduerst »

SlowRobotAhead wrote: post #138
whamlastxmas wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also funny because one of the /r/politics rules was that you were not allowed to accuse someone of shilling. I just checked now and it's still one of the top rules. Given how pro-Hillary and anti-Sanders that sub became overnight, it seems that they were wanting to subdue the commentary on the proven paid influence HRC had.

> Given how pro-Hillary and anti-Sanders that sub became overnight I was there for that too. It literally was flip of a switch speed. One of the big turning points I saw regarding the election.

I'm not sure when you're referencing, but Russian troll farms used Sanders to divide the left on social media websites.
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