Troll farm

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A troll farm or troll factory is an institutionalised group of internet trolls that seeks to interfere in political opinions and decision-making. [1]

Contents

Freedom House's report showed that 30 governments worldwide (out of 65 covered by the study) paid keyboard armies to spread propaganda and attack critics. [2] According to the report, these governments use paid commentors, trolls, and bots to harass journalists and erode trust in the media. Attempts were made to influence elections in 18 of the countries covered by the study. [2]

Governments

Brazil

It has been widely suspected that Brazil's former president Jair Bolsonaro and his family created troll farms to promote support for his government policies and to attack and harass rivals through the internet. These fake accounts and bots are possibly controlled by an office inside one of Bolsonaro's government buildings led by Jair's son Carlos known as 'office of hate', [3] which is suspected to have created more than a thousand fake accounts to support Bolsonaro's government. [4]

Troll accounts have also been linked to misinformation related to the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil, as Bolsonaro's government is known for having adopted a denialist and weak posture regarding the pandemic. [5]

China

The "50 Cent Party" consists of paid Chinese bureaucrats who cheerlead for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) or try to change the subject during online discussions.

India

India's ruling party BJP has a large number of online supporters who support its agenda and attack political rivals. Their methods were recorded by investigative journalist Swati Chaturvedi, who described them as a "digital army" in her book on the subject, I Am a Troll: Inside the Secret World of the BJP's Digital Army. [6]

Malaysia

In 2022, Meta Platforms announced that it has removed hundreds of Facebook and Instagram accounts that were directly linked with the Royal Malaysia Police (RMP), as they were used as part of a troll farm to disseminate propaganda and manipulate public discourse about the Malaysian police and the government. [7] Meta added that such actions were against its policy of "coordinated inauthentic behaviour". [8]

Nicaragua

In November 2021, Facebook reported that it closed accounts, groups and pages in Facebook and Instagram linked to a troll farm operated by the Sandinista National Liberation Front, the ruling party in Nicaragua. [9]

Philippines

The Philippines has been called "patient zero in the global disinformation epidemic." [10] Studies into the country's troll farms found that political campaigns pay trolls $1,000 to $2,000 per month to create multiple fake social media accounts to post political propaganda and attack critics. [10] [11] The political campaign of President Rodrigo Duterte has spent $200,000 to hire online trolls, according to one study. [12] Duterte admitted to hiring trolls for his 2016 political campaign. [13] [14]

Since then, trolling behaviour supportive of Duterte has been traced back to taxpayer-funded government institutions. [15]

Russia

The Internet Research Agency building, dubbed the Russian troll factory, is seen at Savushkina Street in St. Petersburg, Russia. The building is now for rent. 55 Savushkina Street.jpg
The Internet Research Agency building, dubbed the Russian troll factory, is seen at Savushkina Street in St. Petersburg, Russia. The building is now for rent.

The Russian web brigades, including Internet Research Agency, became known in the late 2010s for the Russian interference in the 2016 United States elections. [1] The Internet Research Agency has employed troll armies to spread propaganda, command Twitter trends, and sow fear and erode trust in American political and media institutions. [16]

Turkey

The ruling Justice and Development Party of Turkey has a troll farm commonly known as AK Trolls. [17] [18]

Vietnam

Ukraine

Ukrainian oligarchs and politicians actively use  [ ru ] "troll factories" for their business and political purposes. Journalists from Radio Liberty note that the services of trolls, among others, were used by such oligarchs as Rinat Akhmetov and Ihor Kolomoyskyi. [19] In the fall of 2019, two large-scale journalistic investigations about “troll factories” in Ukraine were published. [20]

Non government entities

Facebook

In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Facebook found that troll farms from North Macedonia and the Philippines pushed coronavirus disinformation. The publisher, which used content from these farms, was banned. [21]

In the run-up to the 2020 United States elections, Eastern European troll farms operated popular Facebook pages showing content related to Christians and Blacks in America. They included more than 15,000 pages combined and were viewed by 140 million US users per month. This was in part due to how Facebook's algorithm and policies allow unoriginal viral content to be copied and spread in ways that still drive up user engagement. As of September 2021, some of the most popular pages were still active on Facebook despite the company's efforts to take down such content. [22]

Harassment of Jessikka Aro

Finnish investigative journalist Jessikka Aro interviewed workers at a “troll factory” in Saint Petersburg. Aro was harassed online after she published her story. [23] A court in Helsinki convicted three persons who had harassed Aro on charges of defamation and negligence. [24] Aro has stated that online trolls can negatively affect freedom of speech and democracy. [25]

People's Mujahedin of Iran

In February 2020, the New York Times interviewed 10 ex-People's Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) members who said that the MEK's Albania camp had a troll farm that promoted the opinions of MEK supporters, including Rudy Giuliani and John Bolton, and attacked the Iranian government. The MEK claimed that the former members were Iranian government spies. [26] In the March 2021 CIB (Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior) report, Facebook announced that it removed hundreds of accounts, pages and groups in both Facebook and Instagram which were in a troll farm in Albania, operated by MEK. [27]

Pro-Trump misinformation

In the North Macedonian city of Veles, locals launched at least 140 United States political websites supporting Donald Trump. [28] [29] [30] [31] [32] [33]

Turning Point

During the 2020 United States presidential election and the COVID-19 pandemic, Turning Point USA and its affiliate Turning Point Action were described as troll farms for paying young conservatives in Phoenix, Arizona, some of them minors with parental support, to post misinformation about the integrity of the electoral process and the threat of COVID-19. The payout included bonuses for posts that generated greater engagement. They used their own social media accounts or fake accounts without disclosing their relationship with Turning Point and were instructed by Turning Point to slightly alter and repost the modified messages a limited number of times to avoid automatic detection. [34] [35]

See also

Related Research Articles

Disinformation is false information deliberately spread to deceive people. Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic deceptions and media manipulation tactics to advance political, military, or commercial goals. Disinformation is implemented through attacks that "weaponize multiple rhetorical strategies and forms of knowing—including not only falsehoods but also truths, half-truths, and value judgements—to exploit and amplify culture wars and other identity-driven controversies."

CounterPunch is a left-wing online magazine. Content includes a free section published five days a week as well as a subscriber-only area called CounterPunch+, where original articles are published weekly. CounterPunch is based in the United States and covers politics in a manner its editors describe as "muckraking with a radical attitude".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Russian web brigades</span> Russian state-sponsored Internet commentators

Russian web brigades, also called Russian trolls, Russian bots, Kremlinbots, or Kremlin trolls are state-sponsored anonymous Internet political commentators and trolls linked to the Russian government. Participants report that they are organized into teams and groups of commentators that participate in Russian and international political blogs and Internet forums using sockpuppets, social bots, and large-scale orchestrated trolling and disinformation campaigns to promote pro-Putin and pro-Russian propaganda.

State-sponsored Internet propaganda is Internet manipulation and propaganda that is sponsored by a state. States have used the Internet, particularly social media to influence elections, sow distrust in institutions, spread rumors, spread disinformation, typically using bots to create and spread contact. Propaganda is used internally to control populations, and externally to influence other societies.

The Internet Research Agency, also known as Glavset, and known in Russian Internet slang as the Trolls from Olgino or Kremlinbots, was a Russian company which was engaged in online propaganda and influence operations on behalf of Russian business and political interests. It was linked to Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former Russian oligarch who was leader of the Wagner Group, and based in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Senyora Santibañez is an exploitable image macro and Photoshop depicting the main antagonist in the Mexican telenovela Marimar and actor Chantal Andere as a snobbish and stereotypically arrogant Filipino hacienda owner.

Fake news websites are websites on the Internet that deliberately publish fake news—hoaxes, propaganda, and disinformation purporting to be real news—often using social media to drive web traffic and amplify their effect. Unlike news satire, these websites deliberately seek to be perceived as legitimate and taken at face value, often for financial or political gain. Fake news websites monetize their content by exploiting the vulnerabilities of programmatic ad trading, which is a type of online advertising in which ads are traded through machine-to-machine auction in a real-time bidding system.

Fake news websites target United States audiences by using disinformation to create or inflame controversial topics such as the 2016 election. Most fake news websites target readers by impersonating or pretending to be real news organizations, which can lead to legitimate news organizations further spreading their message. Most notable in the media are the many websites that made completely false claims about political candidates such as Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, as part of a larger campaign to gain viewers and ad revenue or spread disinformation. Additionally, satire websites have received criticism for not properly notifying readers that they are publishing false or satirical content, since many readers have been duped by seemingly legitimate articles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fake news</span> False or misleading information presented as real

Fake news or information disorder is false or misleading information claiming the aesthetics and legitimacy of news. Fake news often has the aim of damaging the reputation of a person or entity, or making money through advertising revenue. Although false news has always been spread throughout history, the term fake news was first used in the 1890s when sensational reports in newspapers were common. Nevertheless, the term does not have a fixed definition and has been applied broadly to any type of false information presented as news. It has also been used by high-profile people to apply to any news unfavorable to them. Further, disinformation involves spreading false information with harmful intent and is sometimes generated and propagated by hostile foreign actors, particularly during elections. In some definitions, fake news includes satirical articles misinterpreted as genuine, and articles that employ sensationalist or clickbait headlines that are not supported in the text. Because of this diversity of types of false news, researchers are beginning to favour information disorder as a more neutral and informative term.

Internet manipulation is the co-optation of online digital technologies, including algorithms, social bots, and automated scripts, for commercial, social, military, or political purposes. Internet and social media manipulation are the prime vehicles for spreading disinformation due to the importance of digital platforms for media consumption and everyday communication. When employed for political purposes, internet manipulation may be used to steer public opinion, polarise citizens, circulate conspiracy theories, and silence political dissidents. Internet manipulation can also be done for profit, for instance, to harm corporate or political adversaries and improve brand reputation. Internet manipulation is sometimes also used to describe the selective enforcement of Internet censorship or selective violations of net neutrality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vera Files</span> News organization in the Philippines

Vera Files is a non-profit online news organization in the Philippines, known for its institutionalized role in fact-checking false information in the Philippines, and as one of the news organizations most prominently targeted by intimidation and censorship due to its critical coverage of the Philippine government. It is part of the International Fact-Checking Network of the Poynter Institute and is one of Facebook's two Philippine partners in its third-party fact-checking program.

The Bolivarian Army of Trolls is a state-sponsored Internet propaganda agency of Venezuela. It is a child agency of the Ministry of Interior, Justice and Peace that is tasked with spreading Bolivarian propaganda throughout the internet.

Fake news and similar false information is fostered and spread across India through word of mouth, traditional media and more recently through digital forms of communication such as edited videos, websites, blogs, memes, unverified advertisements and social media propagated rumours. Fake news spread through social media in the country has become a serious problem, with the potential of it resulting in mob violence, as was the case where at least 20 people were killed in 2018 as a result of misinformation circulated on social media.

Fake news in the Philippines refers to the general and widespread misinformation or disinformation in the country by various actors. It has been problematic in the Philippines where social media and alike plays a key role in influencing topics and information ranging from politics, health, belief, religion, current events, aid, lifestyle, elections and others. Recently, it has evolved to be a rampant issue against the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines and the 2022 Philippine general election.

The relationship between Russian intelligence services and the Black Lives Matter movement is a concern that emerged among scholars in the late 2010s who have researched Russian interference in United States elections. Russian operatives associated with the Internet Research Agency (IRA) have engaged in an online campaign to both encourage support of and opposition to the Black Lives Matter movement.

Russian disinformation campaigns have occurred in many countries. For example, disinformation campaigns led by Yevgeny Prigozhin have been reported in several African countries. Russia, however, denies that it uses disinformation to influence public opinion.

<i>NewsFront</i> (website) Crimean disinformation website

NewsFront is a website based in Russian occupied Crimea, described by the United States Department of the Treasury as "a Crimea-based disinformation and propaganda outlet...particularly focused on supporting Russia-backed forces in Ukraine." According to owner Konstantin Knyrik, however, NewsFront is fighting an "information war" against unfair attacks on Russia. NewsFront describes itself as "a news agency that runs news in ten languages including Russian, German, English, Bulgarian, Georgian, French, and Spanish."

<i>SouthFront</i> Russian military disinformation website

SouthFront is a multilingual website registered in Russia and based in Crimea. It has been accused of being an outlet for disinformation and propaganda under the control of the Russian government. For this reason, it has been sanctioned by the US Treasury and banned by social media platforms.

References

  1. 1 2 "Russian troll factory paid US activists to help fund protests during election - World news - The Guardian". TheGuardian.com . 26 November 2017. Archived from the original on 26 November 2017. Retrieved 12 January 2018.
  2. 1 2 Titcomb, James (2017-11-14). "Governments in 30 countries are paying 'keyboard armies' to spread propaganda, report says". The Telegraph. ISSN   0307-1235 . Retrieved 2020-05-23.
  3. ↑ Rosati, Andrew; Lima, Mario (22 June 2020). "In Hunt for 'Office of Hate,' Brazil's Supreme Court Closes In". Bloomberg. Archived from the original on 4 February 2021. Retrieved 27 September 2021.
  4. ↑ Freitas, Carolina (3 April 2021). "55% de publicações pró-Bolsonaro são feitas por robôs" [55% of pro-Bolsonaro publications are made by robots]. Globo (in Portuguese). Valor Econômico. Archived from the original on 27 February 2021. Retrieved 26 September 2021.
  5. ↑ Mello, Patrícia (4 August 2020). "Brazil's Troll Army Moves Into the Streets". The New York Times (Opinion piece). São Paulo. Archived from the original on 16 September 2021. Retrieved 26 September 2021.
  6. ↑ Sanghvi, Vir (29 December 2016). "I am a troll: Inside the secret world of BJP's digital army". Business Standard India.
  7. ↑ Babulal, Veena (5 August 2022). "Meta removes Malaysian 'troll farm' Facebook, Instagram accounts, some with links to police". nst.com.my. New Straits Times. Archived from the original on 5 August 2022. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  8. ↑ H. Rodzi, Nadirah (5 August 2022). "Malaysian police allegedly linked to 'troll farm' on Facebook, Instagram". www.straitstimes.com. The Straits Times. Archived from the original on 5 August 2022. Retrieved 5 August 2022.
  9. ↑ "Nicaragua: Facebook accuses government of ties to shuttered accounts". Deutsche Welle. 2021-11-02. Archived from the original on 2021-11-02. Retrieved 2021-11-02.
  10. 1 2 Bengali, Shashank; Halper, Evan (2019-11-19). "Troll armies, a growth industry in the Philippines, may soon be coming to an election near you". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2020-06-10. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  11. ↑ Williams, Sean (2017-01-04). "Rodrigo Duterte's Army of Online Trolls". The New Republic. ISSN   0028-6583. Archived from the original on 2020-06-13. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  12. ↑ Matsuzawa, Mikas (July 24, 2017). "Duterte camp spent $200,000 for troll army, Oxford study finds". Philstar. Archived from the original on 2020-06-08. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  13. ↑ Mongaya, Karlo Mikhail (2017-08-09). "Philippines' 'troll-in-chief'? Duterte admits hiring defenders during polls". Business Standard India. Archived from the original on 2020-06-08. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  14. ↑ Ranada, Pia (25 July 2017). "Duterte says online defenders, trolls hired only during campaign". Rappler. Archived from the original on 2020-06-08. Retrieved 2020-06-08.
  15. ↑ Lalu, Gabriel Pabico (September 29, 2020). "Duterte tells Facebook: Why keep operating in PH if you can't help us?". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Archived from the original on September 30, 2020. Retrieved September 30, 2020.
  16. ↑ Prier, Jarred (2017). "Commanding the Trend: Social Media as Information Warfare". Strategic Studies Quarterly. 11 (4): 50–85. ISSN   1936-1815. JSTOR   26271634. Archived from the original on 2021-02-04. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
  17. ↑ "A Global Guide to State-Sponsored Trolling". Bloomberg.com. 2018-07-19. Archived from the original on 2020-05-11. Retrieved 2020-05-12.
  18. ↑ Benedictus, Leo (2016-11-06). "Invasion of the troll armies: 'Social media where the war goes on'". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077. Archived from the original on 2017-05-10. Retrieved 2020-05-12.
  19. ↑ Иванцова, Анастасия (2015-05-31). "Особенности украинского троллинга". Радио Свобода (in Russian). Archived from the original on 2024-01-03. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  20. ↑ ""Фабрики тролів" - новий стандарт у політичному піарі? – DW – 17.12.2019". dw.com (in Ukrainian). Archived from the original on 2024-01-03. Retrieved 2024-01-05.
  21. ↑ Collins, Ben; Zadrozny, Brandy (May 20, 2020). "Troll farms from North Macedonia and the Philippines pushed coronavirus disinformation on Facebook". NBC News. Archived from the original on May 10, 2023. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  22. ↑ "Troll farms reached 140 million Americans a month on Facebook before 2020 election, internal report shows". MIT Technology Review. Archived from the original on 2024-07-09. Retrieved 2024-07-09.
  23. ↑ Schultz, Teri (October 17, 2018). "Pro-Kremlin online harassment on trial in Finland". Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on 2019-01-19. Retrieved 2020-05-23.
  24. ↑ Staudenmaier, Rebecca (October 18, 2018). "Court in Finland finds pro-Kremlin trolls guilty of harassing journalist". Deutsche Welle. Archived from the original on 2020-11-09. Retrieved 2020-05-23.
  25. ↑ Miller, Nick (2016-03-11). "Finnish journalist Jessikka Aro's inquiry into Russian trolls stirs up a hornet's nest". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 2020-07-13. Retrieved 2020-05-23.
  26. ↑ Kingsley, Patrick (2020-02-16). "Highly Secretive Iranian Rebels Are Holed Up in Albania. They Gave Us a Tour". The New York Times . Archived from the original on 2020-02-16. Retrieved 2020-02-16.
  27. ↑ "Facebook March 2021 Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior Report" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-03-21. Retrieved 2021-12-16.
  28. ↑ Silverman, Craig; Alexander, Lawrence (3 November 2016). "How Teens In The Balkans Are Duping Trump Supporters With Fake News". BuzzFeed News. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
  29. ↑ Tynan, Dan (August 24, 2016). "How Facebook powers money machines for obscure political 'news' sites". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077. Archived from the original on November 16, 2019. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  30. ↑ Remnick, David (18 November 2016). "Obama Reckons with a Trump Presidency". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on 12 May 2017. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
  31. ↑ Subramanian, Samanth (February 15, 2017). "Meet the Macedonian Teens Who Mastered Fake News and Corrupted the US Election". Wired. Archived from the original on September 20, 2019. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  32. ↑ Kirby, Emma Jane (December 5, 2016). "The city getting rich from fake news". BBC News. Archived from the original on July 20, 2018. Retrieved June 1, 2020.
  33. ↑ Byrne, Andrew (16 December 2016). "Macedonia's fake news industry sets sights on Europe" . Financial Times. Archived from the original on 29 June 2018. Retrieved 1 June 2020.
  34. ↑ Stanley-Becker, Isaac (15 September 2020). "Pro-Trump youth group enlists teens in secretive campaign likened to a 'troll farm,' prompting rebuke by Facebook and Twitter". The Washington Post. ISSN   0190-8286. Archived from the original on 4 November 2020. Retrieved 26 September 2021. In 2016, there were Macedonian teenagers interfering in the election by running a troll farm...In this election, the troll farm is in Phoenix.
  35. ↑ Wong, Julia (11 June 2021). "Revealed: rightwing firm posed as leftist group on Facebook to divide Democrats". The Guardian. San Francisco. Archived from the original on 27 September 2021. Retrieved 26 September 2021. Rally Forge ... established a domestic 'troll farm' in Phoenix, Arizona, that employed teenagers to churn out pro-Trump social media posts, some of which cast doubt on the integrity of the US election system or falsely charged Democrats with attempting to steal the election
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