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I remember going down the "dead internet theory" rabbit hole of reddit and it was gruesome. Tons of people who are actually paid to go through conversation scr

I remember going down the "dead internet theory" rabbit hole of reddit and it was gruesome. Tons of people who are actually paid to go through conversation scripts, push narratives, etc.

selfmodruntime 1y ago
Any good resources on this?
- angra_mainyu 1y ago
  Honestly can't remember, it was years ago when I looked into it. Here's a good starting point though (trying to remember): https://www.reddit.com/r/shills/comments/3uoxpl/internet_shills_101/ https://www.reddit.com/r/shills/comments/3uoxpl/internet_shi... But yeah, the site changed heavily around 2015-2016, in tandem with content policing growing, subs getting closed, etc. These days I just use HN tbh.
- OhioMan2943 1y ago
  2020 oxford internet institute state cybertroop report https://demtech.oii.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2021/01/CyberTroop-Report-2020-v.2.pdf https://demtech.oii.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/202...
sellmesoap 1y ago
20 years ago I was made aware of gurella marketing people who were paid to have 'organic conversations' in public places about products they were promoting!
- Obscurity4340 1y ago
  I mean, bullshit is organic right?
DecentShoes 1y ago
Can you give me some sources about the conversation scripts? I've been sure this is happening but can't prove it.
- speeder 1y ago
  I dated a woman that had a job of managing fake social media profiles. She worked for a marketing company, but the whole point of her department was to do shadow PR. Step one was get (sometimes a purchase, sometimes AI, etc...) a lot of pictures or same person. Step two was create the basic "character" based on the pictures. Step three was make posts, sometimes automated, sometimes manually, using the pictures and any appropriate content. This Step can last years and goal is create a internet presence that looks like a real person. Final possible steps: 1. If character became famous enough, could be sold to an influencer or corporation to manage that profile and do whatever they wanted. 2. If wasn't sold, it was used often to generate legitimacy for other fake profiles. 3. The real cash cow: during PR emergencies those profiles would be used to direct the narrative, for example she told me her last work like that was using these profiles to make content go viral to distract the public from negative news that were viralizing about one of the world biggest appliances manufacturer. She said in 24 hours people were all over paying attention to the new "viral" post and forgot the news entirely and the company didn't even had to make a statement.
  - angra_mainyu 1y ago
    [flagged]
    - angra_mainyu 1y ago
      [flagged]
  - sira04 1y ago
    What was the marketing company called? I'd like to know if they list this service publicly and if so, what it would be called.
- TZubiri 1y ago

I remember going down the "dead internet theory" rabbit hole of reddit and it was gruesome. Tons of people who are actually paid to go through conversation scripts, push narratives, etc.

selfmodruntime 1y ago

Any good resources on this?

angra_mainyu 1y ago
Honestly can't remember, it was years ago when I looked into it. Here's a good starting point though (trying to remember): https://www.reddit.com/r/shills/comments/3uoxpl/internet_shills_101/ https://www.reddit.com/r/shills/comments/3uoxpl/internet_shi... But yeah, the site changed heavily around 2015-2016, in tandem with content policing growing, subs getting closed, etc. These days I just use HN tbh.
OhioMan2943 1y ago
2020 oxford internet institute state cybertroop report https://demtech.oii.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2021/01/CyberTroop-Report-2020-v.2.pdf https://demtech.oii.ox.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/202...

sellmesoap 1y ago

20 years ago I was made aware of gurella marketing people who were paid to have 'organic conversations' in public places about products they were promoting!

Obscurity4340 1y ago
I mean, bullshit is organic right?

DecentShoes 1y ago

Can you give me some sources about the conversation scripts? I've been sure this is happening but can't prove it.

speeder 1y ago
I dated a woman that had a job of managing fake social media profiles. She worked for a marketing company, but the whole point of her department was to do shadow PR. Step one was get (sometimes a purchase, sometimes AI, etc...) a lot of pictures or same person. Step two was create the basic "character" based on the pictures. Step three was make posts, sometimes automated, sometimes manually, using the pictures and any appropriate content. This Step can last years and goal is create a internet presence that looks like a real person. Final possible steps: 1. If character became famous enough, could be sold to an influencer or corporation to manage that profile and do whatever they wanted. 2. If wasn't sold, it was used often to generate legitimacy for other fake profiles. 3. The real cash cow: during PR emergencies those profiles would be used to direct the narrative, for example she told me her last work like that was using these profiles to make content go viral to distract the public from negative news that were viralizing about one of the world biggest appliances manufacturer. She said in 24 hours people were all over paying attention to the new "viral" post and forgot the news entirely and the company didn't even had to make a statement.
- angra_mainyu 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - angra_mainyu 1y ago
    [flagged]
- sira04 1y ago
  What was the marketing company called? I'd like to know if they list this service publicly and if so, what it would be called.
TZubiri 1y ago