4 ms·
> trolls - state sponsored or otherwise pushing an anti-humanitarian cause. I've seen this idea brought up a few times here in our community, and have been acc
by matt_wulfeck 9y ago
> trolls - state sponsored or otherwise pushing an anti-humanitarian cause.
I've seen this idea brought up a few times here in our community, and have been accused of it at least once for expressing an unpopular opinion.
I have such a hard time believing there's state sponsored posters who troll hacker news. It seems extremely tinfoil hat to me. Honestly folks we're not that important.
- pjc50 9y agoIt's fairly well established that intelligence agencies have active "social media" operations, and that there's paid distributors of "fake news" about. Establishing any particular account as a paid troll is almost impossible, although the moderators might be able to infer things from the login IP addresses if their opsec is bad.
- matt_wulfeck 9y agoHow is it established? What proof of any kind do you have that people are being paid to troll in our corner of the internet? Even if agencies had a presence on social media, what advantage do they having coming to HN and trying to convince a bunch of computer nerds that life was better in Syria under Assad?
- ionised 9y agoNSA and GCHQ document leaks outlining their shilling operations.
- hackuser 9y agoYou can find plenty of articles in serious sources which contain serious research on Russian astroturfing operations. Based on those, any forum is a target and HN is more influential than most.
- shitgoose 9y agoI am afraid that burden of proof is still on you. The habit of throwing in an accusation and suggesting that your opponents go and look for proof, became too widespread.
- hackuser 9y ago> The habit of throwing in an accusation and suggesting that your opponents go and look for proof, became too widespread. Generally I agree, but in this case it's very easily found.
- shitgoose 9y agoyou can't be serious.
- pm24601 9y agoNot really, if you choose to silently disbelieve that is fine. Expecting anyone else to spend their time and energy on "proving" some thing to someone else, should only happen if there is a pay off. https://xkcd.com/386/ https://xkcd.com/386/
- shitgoose 9y agoshitgoose to pm24601: you suck! pm24601 to shitgoose: why!? shitgoose to pm24601: go google it yourself! pm24601 to shitgoose: why should i google why i suck? shitgoose to pm24601: if you choose to silently disbelieve that is fine. Expecting anyone else to spend their time and energy on "proving" some thing to someone else, should only happen if there is a pay off.
- matt_wulfeck 9y agoI think Occam's razor is applicable with our discussion. Are the people who are disagreeing with you a paid shill from the government trying to advance a particular agenda, or is it just a person who disagrees with you?
- 3131s 9y agoThe Stratfor leaks show the US government contracting out the development of astroturfing software.
- munificent 9y agohttps://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/nov/06/troll-armies-social-media-trump-russian https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/nov/06/troll-armies-s... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_brigades https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_brigades https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/magazine/the-agency.html?_r=0 https://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/07/magazine/the-agency.html?... http://www.pcworld.com/article/3186639/security/senator-russia-used-thousands-of-internet-trolls-during-us-election.html http://www.pcworld.com/article/3186639/security/senator-russ...