How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations

First Look.org ^ | Feb 24, 2014 | Glenn Greenwald

[Leroy S. Mort]

Observing the fractures here which cause us to be disunited in our goals, one wonders how much of this is caused (or at least aided and abetted) by agencies and independent disruptors such as this.

[Mamzelle]

Paranoid!

Heh. I've been sounding the alarm, particularly on FR, as long as I've been here.

The Progressive NGOs hire trolls to live on conservative blogs and forums. It's a very cheap way to sway public opinion. The oligarchy have billions, why would it be surprising that they spend mere millions to propagandize the most important political discussions of our time?

You can be sure that Center for American Progress, MoveOn, every nonprofit paid by Soros, Buffett, Singer (now diseased), Gates… read every word we write. And they have figured out a way, I am convinced, to take over some old FR accounts so that they can have an early sign up date as they troll.

[BerryDingle]

bump for ref.

[hoosiermama]

Is this the same article or a different presentation of the same material ?

Actions being discussed sure do look familiar

[RedMDer]

1st Quarter FReepathon

Less than $5.4k to go!!
We can do this.

[null and void]

I think different presentation.

"Times through equals certainty."

Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping!

To get onto The Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping List you must threaten to report me to the Mods if I don't add you to the list...

[blueunicorn6]

When you attack (such as liberals attacking Free Republic) you open yourself up for a counterpunch. They would have to observe for responses to see how their attack is working. They would then be open to a counterpunch even if it is a subconscious counterpunch. Perhaps a question implanted in their subconscious asking why their bosses would want them to attack people exercising their freedom?

[Balding_Eagle]

All in all, trolls have little success here on FR.

So little, in fact, that the mods have to leave some of their posts up just to satisfy the hunger to beat the snot out of them.

[billhilly]

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRS, ETC. HOW IN THE WORLD CAN A PERSON READ AND UNDERSTAND SUCH An alphabet soup article?

[Texas Fossil]

Bump!

[WildHighlander57]

I agree with null and void’s take on it; same slides, different verbiage in between.

Slides are spot on in describing troll tactics, especially “packs” of them ganging up on sites and threads.

Some things that could be done to thwart them is

a)ignore them

b)expose them,

c)warn others about them

Comments welcome, FRmail if needed :)

[FReepaholic]

One tactic I see used here and on other forums is "thread hijacking". This is where one or more people go off on a tangent and steer the conversation in a direction away from the original post.

Often they will get into fake arguments and posts become so heated and off topic that other people will stop following the thread and move on. Mission accomplished.

[iontheball]

Oh how the liberals howled regarding Nixon's ‘Dirty Tricks.’ Nixon and his crew were neophytes compared with these guys. If this government run disinformation/fraudulent activity directed at the the general public is being paid for with taxpayer dollars all these people need to go to jail. There is no way that appropriated money can be authorized for this kind of deliberate deceit and fraudulent activity.

[miserare]

They are so obvious on FR that they usually get the ZOT within a few minutes of posting.

[Essie]

“Thread hijacking” is a common occurrence on almost all of the conservative web sites I visit. To me, it is obvious that the person is a troll and just trying to prevent discussion. I see this most often with certain topics. For example, homosexuality and anything to do with Obama’s creditability. I really started to notice this when Obama first started to run for the presidency. I think it is a very serious problem. I have seen topic after topic muted by this kind of attack.

[WildHighlander57]

Freepaholic, all y’all:

getting people to stop following the thread by threadjacking/starting arguments isn’t the only result; threads can get locked or pulled on account of it.

Mission thoroughly accomplished :(

[WildHighlander57]

Yep, govt guys AND their minions (including, but not limited to, trolls) need to be held accountable for their actions.

[bgill]

I wonder about longtime FRriends who suddenly disappear forever and those who have never done anything wrong but suddenly get zotted with no explaination.

[hoosiermama]

Only the new one. Older ones ingratiate themselves by initially contributing to the discussion and after building a plethora of followers that they’ve manipulated thru slight of hand put in their true intent.
To take down the research
Muddle the threads
Run off legit posters from Fr
Thereby destroying the site