2015: Origins of Russian Social Media Propaganda ... Material from the Troll Factory
Yle Kioski Traces the Origins of Russian Social Media Propaganda – Never-before-seen Material from the Troll Factory
We followed the operations of the secretive so called troll factory in Saint Petersburg on the spot for three days.
20.2.2015
Troll. TROLL.
Everyone having discussions on the Internet knows the word.
It means a person who annoys and provokes others participating in web discussions on purpose.
In Russia, this word of web slang has a new meaning: a troll is an employee who is paid to post ingratiating comments in the social media about president Vladimir Putin anonymously and often aggressively.
<snip>
The company that is funded by Russian businessmen has not commented on the information. The connection of the troll factory with the Kremlin has not been proved but, then again, there is no proof about all the forms of information warfare, in general.
We studied the job advertisements of the Internet Research Agency. On 2 February, there were ten of them on a Russian job website. The company is not looking for “trolls” but, for example, “social media specialists”, “Internet operators”, “content managers”, and “copywriters” for day and night shifts....
http://kioski.yle.fi/omat/at-the-origins-of-russian-propaganda
