The Low Spark of Well-Heeled Trolls
by xxdr_zombiexx | January 17, 2008
About a year and a half ago I wrote a piece about paid trolls and posted it at Daily Kos.
Some call it Astroturfing
The use of paid shills to create the impression of a popular movement, through means like letters to newspapers from soidisant ‘concerned citizens’, paid opinion pieces, and the formation of grass-roots lobbying groups that are actually funded by a PR group (AstroTurf is fake grass; hence the term). Recently, I have seen concerns related to trolls, paid or otherwise surfacing again, likely due to the upcoming election battles, so I have re-posted this here in a mildly edited form to raise awareness.
If nothing else, this phenomenon highlights the power blogging has garnered.
The Low Spark of Well-Heeled Trolls
Ever wonder why "do not feed the trolls" was such an ineffective way to address the problem?
How is it that such dullards can ruin the most intelligent of message board discourse?
From Pandagon
What a lot of us suspected--that conservative trolls that seem to generate knee-jerk right wing talking points are just plants that are put there by the endless stream of right wing money earmarked for propaganda--looks like it's probably true. People are reporting that they're getting these comments from people that are coming from this company called Netvocates. The company sells itself as a company that will defend your organization's reputation by sending people to fill blog comments with defenses. The blurb from the site is quite telling:
For many organizations, blogs represent an uncomfortable topic. Unlike traditional communication mediums, blogs frequently impact an organization and its products and image in uncontrolled and often unexpected ways. In addition, the sheer volume of blogs, message boards, and other discussion forums makes it difficult for organizations to effectively monitor the activity relevant to them.
She goes on to document that the
company appears to work predominantly for corporations that are attempting to mitigate damage by people who are criticizing their practices and marketing on the internet.
But there's also a group called the Rendon Group that is all about controlling public opinion on government actions that people are reporting on their site meters. Considering that the Rendon Group has contracts from BushCo to spread pro-war propaganda, it's hard to imagine that they aren't also targeting left-leaning blogs, possibly trying to circumvent productive anti-war discussion by bomb-throwing and other nonsense. Something to keep an eye out for--if you have right wing trolls that only comment on certain topics, especially if they just generate generic talking points, there's a solid chance they are a troll-for-hire.
While most of us attempt to restrain ourselves from "feeding the trolls" many of them, in fact, could be "nourished" by the "endless stream of rightwing money".
So, ignore them or not, they have plenty of impetus to come and soil what is one of the Blogoshpere's greatest strengths - unfettered public discourse. The Troll-for-Hire is there to destroy it whatever one does.
more...
http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/12224