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Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm

theguardian.com

11–20 of 333 posts

Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm

#11
post #9

Does 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.

I had an actual question, I know what they are, do you have the answer?

I am using this thread as a suggested topic to get recommendations on the topic.

Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm

#12
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I had an actual question, I know what they are, do you have the answer? I am using this thread as a suggested topic to get recommendations on the topic.

I don't know of specific companies, was just trying to point you in the right direction. ️

Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm

#13
post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had an actual question, I know what they are, do you have the answer? I am using this thread as a suggested topic to get recommendations on the topic.

I don't know of specific companies, was just trying to point you in the right direction. ️

okay, now googling for self-proclaimed propaganda firms.

Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm

#14
post #10
post #4

I 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.

What you say is true if I'm running a FaceBook/Twitter/whatever, but I believe the issue here is a bit broader: What do we as a global society believe is an acceptable level of disclosure when voicing opinions that are not our own?

Individual platforms can self-regulate (hah!) if they feel the need, but I think many people will have strong feelings on what are and are not acceptable ways of influencing public opinion.

Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm

#15
post #3

I 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...

They object to being called a troll farm, but essentially admit to all the activities, including making fake accounts, that makes them a troll farm. Other than getting picky about terminology it appears to be an admission of guilt.

Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm

#16
post #3

I 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...

Interesting statement. I'm not super convinced by their arguments, but one cannot be sure the newspaper reporting is accurate and unbiased either.

Strange how the statement feels chaotic and even unprofessional at times. They should get PR firm perhaps? Oh wait.

Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm

#17
post #8
post #4

I 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 wh…

Seems like the key (obvious?) difference between "acceptable" and "unacceptable" is the speaker's transparency about the source of the message. Disclosing who you are and your relationship to the topic: Acceptable. Hiding or obfuscating who you are or pretending to be someone else: Unacceptable.

Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm

#18
What this article fails to mention: there was recently a case discovered where one of the clients of these troll farms was... Ministry of Justice. They used to slander judges who were not in the political line of thought of the previous / current leading party.

The knowledge of this was as high up as Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the man who appears to be driving the whole country from the back seat.

One of many, many articles available in Polish press: https://www.rp.pl/Sedziowie-i-sady/309239933-Farma-trolli-w-...

Edit: added „line of“ in „ They used to slander judges who were not in the political line of thought of the previous / current leading party.“

Re: Undercover reporter reveals life in a Polish troll farm

#20

What this article fails to mention: there was recently a case discovered where one of the clients of these troll farms was... Ministry of Justice. They used to slander judges who were not in the political line of thought of the previous / current leading party. The knowledge of this was as high up as Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the man who appears to be driving the whole country from the back seat. One of many, many articles…

I can't say it surprises me. But I think by now every government is using such farms. I find it difficult to believe otherwise based on recent FCC issues ( https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/jsvine/net-neutrality-f...).

Yes, sadly, I am invoking everyone is doin' it.

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