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Inside The 'Propaganda Kitchen' -- A Former Russian 'Troll Factory' Employee Speaks Out

"There were people who really flew at [the work] with enthusiasm, and then some who came to work just realizing that all they were doing was nonsense,” Sergei K., a former employee of a Russian company that became known as the “Russian troll factory,” ...

"Qualifications for being hired weren’t demanding, he said, just a high-school diploma. But there were some people who had advanced degrees, including doctorates. All had to undergo a background check, he said; he was forced to sign a nondisclosure agreement.

He said most people were paid around 40,000 rubles a month ($524); he made 45,000; others who worked longer and harder got paid more. The expectation, he said, was he would make about 120 comments during his shift.

The “factory” had many different departments, each comprising around 15 people and each dealing with a different external Internet or social-media company. One dealt with YouTube, he said, another with Facebook, and another with the Russian social network VK, which is widely used there".

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by Anonymousreply 32January 31, 2021 3:29 PM

How many were assigned to Datalounge?

by Anonymousreply 1January 30, 2021 3:16 PM

Only 120 comments during what I assume is a full 8-hour shift? That surprises me.

Interesting that this guy was on a team who replied to news articles.

by Anonymousreply 2January 30, 2021 3:18 PM

[quote] Interesting that this guy was on a team who replied to news articles.

That's why Yahoo shut down their comments section for a very long time.

It was all right-wing, all the time.

Good for Yahoo for doing that.

by Anonymousreply 3January 30, 2021 3:19 PM

Has Yahoo opened their chat rooms up yet? I remember reading comments and it was fairly obvious that it was a lot of trolls and the bots were ridiculous.

by Anonymousreply 4January 30, 2021 3:23 PM

This nazi troll was just arrested for interference in the 2016 election and it looks like he won't be the last.

"Federal prosecutors charged Mackey under a “civil rights conspiracy statute,” possibly indicating that investigators are looking into a broader network of bad actors.

Mackey and the three co-conspirators that HuffPost was able to identify are closely associated with a group of high-level pro-Trump political saboteurs known as “MAGA3X” that had ties to the Trump campaign and Trump’s disgraced former national security adviser Michael Flynn".

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by Anonymousreply 5January 30, 2021 7:58 PM

MAGA3X, as in 3XL? As in somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds?

by Anonymousreply 6January 31, 2021 11:04 AM

Ricky Vaughn of the MAGA3X crowd was exposed in 2018 but only just now got arrested. That's a good sign, looks like Biden's starting to clean house.

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by Anonymousreply 7January 31, 2021 11:07 AM

Find a real source, OP.

by Anonymousreply 8January 31, 2021 11:09 AM

It's Radio Free Europe, R8.

by Anonymousreply 9January 31, 2021 11:11 AM

Learn how to verify sources and/or fact check, r8.

"The following day, Pack resigned at the request of the Biden administration.[126] Shapiro resigned from the Office of Cuba Broadcasting on January 21. Biden named veteran VOA journalist Kelo Chao to replace Pack. Chao in turn dismissed Riley and Robbins from VOA, naming Yolanda Lopez, another VOA veteran, as acting director; Lopez had also been reassigned in the wake of the Pompeo interview.[127] On January 22, the Biden administration fired Victoria Coates and her deputy Robert Greenway from the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, naming Kelley Sullivan as acting head.[128] Radio Free Asia's Stephen J. Yates and Lipien were also fired.[129]"

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by Anonymousreply 10January 31, 2021 1:09 PM

All opposition to the Democratic Party is treason and treason is a capital crime. Kill these motherfuckers. Don’t just send them to jail, fucking kill every last one of them. Make all opposition to the Democratic Party a capital crime. Assassination was good enough for Lincoln, this place where the people fucking demand the brutal and bloody assassination of all Republicans everywhere and chill this is actually achieved.

And after that happens, we will nuke the everloving shit out of Russia. We should have turned them into a smoking crater years and years ago. Fucking Russkie scum must all die! Nothing less than the systematic execution of that entire shithole of a nation will do at this point.

by Anonymousreply 11January 31, 2021 1:32 PM

All opposition to the Democratic Party is treason and treason is a capital crime. Kill these motherfuckers. Don’t just send them to jail, fucking kill every last one of them. Make all opposition to the Democratic Party a capital crime. Assassination was good enough for Lincoln, now we the people fucking demand the brutal and bloody assassination of all Republicans everywhere and will continue to demand it until this is actually achieved.

And after that happens, we will nuke the everloving shit out of Russia. We should have turned them into a smoking crater years and years ago. Fucking Russkie scum must all die! Nothing less than the systematic execution of that entire shithole of a nation will do at this point.

by Anonymousreply 12January 31, 2021 1:33 PM

Does R11/R12 get double rubles for posting twice, even if unintended?

by Anonymousreply 13January 31, 2021 1:37 PM

The rightwingers who pretend to be "extreme Democrats" who call for the genocide of an entire nation are never convincing. I wonder why trolls like r11 waste their time even trying it.

by Anonymousreply 14January 31, 2021 1:39 PM

[post redacted because linking to dailymail.co.uk clearly indicates that the poster is either a troll or an idiot (probably both, honestly.) Our advice is that you just ignore this poster but whatever you do, don't click on any link to this putrid rag.]

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by Anonymousreply 15January 31, 2021 1:40 PM

What's crazy is that the majority of trolling is not even political in nature.

Trolls will make money putting up false articles around a range of subjects that generate clicks. Health and wellness are prime among them, so "Study Shows Eating This Vegetable Twice A Day Makes Gay Men More Attractive To Other Men" and some article about how eating sweet potatoes makes gay men more attractive to each other. The piece will be written by someone whose first language is not English, possibly even with the help of Google Translate.

But the trolls will sell ads against the site (something innocuous like GayHealthNews.com) and promote it on social media, where it will get enough traffic to make the ads profitable and since the ads are sold and placed via automated systems, no one will be any the wiser.

Tech help is another category like this, with headlines like "5 Secret Tricks To Extend The Life Of Your iPhone Battery", some of which are obvious (lower the brightness) and some of which are made up but seem like they could work . It does not matter either way, people will click and trolls will make money.

by Anonymousreply 16January 31, 2021 1:47 PM

R16 is a Chinese bot.

Keep it up, Ling-Ling.

by Anonymousreply 17January 31, 2021 1:50 PM

R1 - nobody fucking cares about Datalounge.

by Anonymousreply 18January 31, 2021 1:56 PM

There's always an R18 to miss the joke....

by Anonymousreply 19January 31, 2021 1:57 PM

R18 is one of the tiresome people who insists no one ever trolls on Datalounge. It's the dumbest damn thing, but there's several like him.

by Anonymousreply 20January 31, 2021 1:59 PM

OK fine R19. I missed the joke.

Har har.

However I remember reading lots and lots of posts over the past 4 years from posters lamenting that DL was filled up with Russian troll posts when we all know that DL doesn't have the traffic any more to be on anyone's radar.

by Anonymousreply 21January 31, 2021 2:00 PM

We don't know the traffic DL gets, we only have estimates, and we very obviously have trolls. There are several recent topics where people have found Reddit, 4chan, Gab, Twitter, Kiwi Farms, even Stormfront trolls linking directly to DL threads to troll them.

It makes zero sense to claim Datalounge "doesn't have the traffic" to get trolls. How do you not notice the trolls?

by Anonymousreply 22January 31, 2021 2:06 PM

You're wrong, r21, Muriel posted a question and answer thread awhile back and went to great length explaining the troll situation on DL. It was very interesting

by Anonymousreply 23January 31, 2021 2:07 PM

Jimmy Dore called Russiagate a xenophobic hoax. That proves that he is not only a Russian troll but a racist as well. Only a racist cries “xenophobia“ at critics of a majority white nation that is engaged in treason and subversion on a grand scale, one large enough to justify retaliatory military force.

by Anonymousreply 24January 31, 2021 2:09 PM

Notice they don’t name Microchip.

by Anonymousreply 25January 31, 2021 2:47 PM

[quote] The rightwingers who pretend to be "extreme Democrats" who call for the genocide of an entire nation are never convincing

Sorry, I'm not a right-winger but I would be extremely happy if Russia just disappeared off the map.

Russia contributes nothing positive to this Earth.

They're hateful, drunken, sleazy, bigoted con artists whose only accomplishment in the past 50 years has been sowing seeds of discord around the world, and threatening global domination and/or destruction.

I say get rid of the fuckers, and we'll all be better off.

I HOPE YOU RUSSIAN TROLL BOTS ARE READING THIS!

by Anonymousreply 26January 31, 2021 2:51 PM

R15 I must be super efficient if I fit trolling into my very short post. Do I give you a troll inferiority complex?

by Anonymousreply 27January 31, 2021 2:51 PM

The "extreme Democrat troll" is our old acquaintance, Matt Anscher, or, at least, one of many voices ringing inside his cranium.

by Anonymousreply 28January 31, 2021 2:58 PM

I strongly believe that Russian Trolls exist and may have even posted here on DL, but I also believe that some posters use Russian Trolls to either cut off debate or as an escape valve, so they don't have to deal with the fact that are in fact gay republicans, gay conservatives, and gay deplorables. We have seen a lot of stupid shit over the last 5 years and not all of that stupid shit was from Russia.

by Anonymousreply 29January 31, 2021 2:58 PM

Jimmy Dore is a far-right grifter troll who is working hard to obfuscate the true purpose of the boog movement, which has always been a white nationalist destruction of democracy.

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by Anonymousreply 30January 31, 2021 3:19 PM

R29, honestly, has any thread on DL ever been shut down because someone falsely accused another of being a Russian troll?

We're all aware that there are gay Trumpsters, we have articles on them posted here regularly and I'd bet every single one of us knows a Log Cabin Republican.

by Anonymousreply 31January 31, 2021 3:26 PM

“Don’t be silly, there are no trolls here,” laughed the troll.

by Anonymousreply 32January 31, 2021 3:29 PM
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