The same goes for people with a religious message, and certainly a political one. The example of a pro-Israeli propaganda operation is quite plausible (as is a pro-Palestinian one).

And of course, the websearch engines can disseminate the links far and wide.

A conmpany organized to do this on a mass scale could easily peddle this to customers interested in using their services to generate grass roots support. It would be cheap (workers would use their own computers), and all the consultant would have to provide is training and targets, and perhaps some guidance as to topics. A small amount of supervision could ensure by spot-checks that the workers were doing their job properly, all handled from the home office.

The Zone used to be perfect for this. What better way to reach large numbers of people in, or interested in, space tech; or perhaps persuade others what people in that field or industry were actually thinking? It would be ideal for propaganda, and counter-propaganda (frustrating similar operations from your opponents and competitors.

Remember, it doesn’t actually have to work. All you have to do is convince your client it IS working, or that it MIGHT work.

This particular example does have a sort of anomalistic aura to it (puppet masters controlling us through the internet, etc), but the idea is sound, and for some applications it might even work. Even the idea that Mossad is trying to manipulate US public opinion on Israel is now out on the net, and on Google. This could be a sophisticated defensive operation from the other side.

I used to work in PR, although we worked in the open, not surreptitiously. I agree with the writer how you have a tendency to get emotionally involved in the message, and enjoy correcting (and demolishing) your critics and skeptics, because you are so much better prepared than they are. This has the ring of truth to it. Its just the sort of thing some young executive would propose at a policy session, and run up the flagpole to see if anyone saluted.

Why pay for something it’s so easy to get for free? Paying for trolls is like paying to import rabbits to Australia.

It is easier to believe than a lot of stuff we see on the interweb

Follow this meme as it flows like water down to the lowest levels.

I wouldn’t be surprised either if it wasn’t just one side or party that was doing it, but a great number of them. (Oh, yes, there are more than two sides or agendas attached to every issue. It’s never black and white.) And he mentions only a specific political issue. I’m sure there are commercial and religious operations like that out there as well. They can not only inhabit neutral sites to change opinions and rebut articulate spokesmen for the other side, but also these people can troll partisan sites and make real pests of themselves, cause trouble and dissension, and drive people off by insults and sheer nastyness.

I’ve always felt the Zone would attract these kind of people, particularly when it was open enrollment, and frequented by many people in the space community, some of then even well-known influential personalities. And the anonymity involved is an open invitation to black propagandists. (No, I’m not talking about TB. We all know his identity, he’s legit.)

I’ve always suspected on of our old posters here (he no longer comes around much) was a black propagandist. He left around the time enrollment was closed. This guy pretended to be a highly partisan conservative, but the man was really obnoxious and insulting, a real prick. So his visits tended to discredit conservatives rather than support conservative positions. He was obviously smart and well educated, a good writer, but he claimed to follow some really anomalistic beliefs that would have thoroughly discredited his politics in a science-oriented chat room. I always suspected he was actually a Lefty pretending to be a Righty, trying to make Conservatives look bad. I even told him so once, shortly before he disappeared. (No, I don’t think I got to him, but the Zone was going into decline and it was no longer cost-effective for him to work the place.) Fear not, everybody here now is a genuine asshole, not a phony one.

Of course, this is America, and every form of skulduggery can be commercialized. Not only are there probably consultants out there peddling snake oil, I bet some of them will will work for either side of an issue, or even both sides simultaneously! All they are in it for is the money. You know, like advertising agencies and lawyers.

Believe me, if there was somebody paying cash for internet posting, they’d be swamped with applicants. I wish to hell I was getting paid for this. The responses on that thread over there are instructive.