Confessions of a paid hater / troll in Poland

Angora 1 (1333) - 3rd January 2016 printed an anonymous letter from a young guy who works as a paid sock puppet / troll / hater. He is paid to post hateful political comments. Below is a summary of his insider view (the letter is long).

He works in a copartnership which shapes public opinion in the internet. The company is registered outside Poland and allegedly employs 300 people all around Europe. Most of them, including the employee, are students making extra buck in free time. They prefer to work remotely, from campus or from home.

The employee used to work as a telemarketer and was selling stuff to old people. A friend contacted him and offered a job - writing comments under articles. No specifics at first, then instructions to blacken a certain political party as much as possible. He received a list of 30 "facts" to support him in his writing. As a confirmation, he had to send a list of hyperlinks to his posts.

The goal is as many posts as possible. The more virulent the posts, the higher the bonus. The easiest insults are "thief" and "fraud" - they are so many nobody will try to sue you for libel. But best - highest paid - comments need many replies. So employees started cooperating, upvoting their posts, and writing replies.

On a small party, a manager spilled that he already did this work for industry: wind power plants (positive), car companies, insurance and banks.

But biggest contracts come before every election, typically every 2 years. They pay 0.13 - 3 Z£ for every post, of which the writer typically gets half.

In 2015 the biggest customer of such paid hater companies was PiS - almost from January. Presidential elections, then parliamentary elections. PO paid little - not out of kindness of heart or high morals, but because they underestimated paid haters. The most common and well paid targets of black propaganda were Komorowski (former president), Sikorski (former foreign minister), Kopacz (former prime minister).

Month ago they started targetting Ryszard Petru (leader of .Nowoczesna, an opposition party, currently popular but only 28 seats in parliament). Initially mild stuff like "A gdzie jest Petru ?" (Where's Petru?) in attempt to ridicule his then common media presence, now more foul stuff. The crosshair went from PO to .Nowoczesna.

As far as portals go:
interia.pl has the most anti-PO and anti-.Nowoczesna opinions. They block posts critical of Duda (president) and PiS (the ruling party).
gazeta.pl and onet.pl support PO and .Nowoczesna the most.
wp.pl is somewhere in the middle.

The employee sent the letter to Angora in hopes of making people aware. Most of comments, especially the vile and virulent ones, are paid. And comments by "old people" are almost exclusively paid.

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If you find more confessions in press, tell about them.

As we all expected, PiS have made heavy use of such individuals. Just like in Mother Russia.

You can normally spot them a mile away though, because the way of writing is very similar - just like the Russian trolls.

One of my students was telling me about a some western Europeans who work in Rembertow on the military base and are in charge of just this. Monitoring and manipulating public opinion regarding certain military activities undertaken by Poland, NATO, etc. It's everywhere and in your hair.

can you link the article please, I'd like to read it?

Sorry I can't, I read the paper version. It's in the "letters from readers" section, the leftomost letter, I think the letter is titled "Za pieniądze"

I'd try reading it at an Empik if you live in a larger Polish city.

Or buy a copy, it's available everywhere and not expensive (I often buy it before going on a trip as it makes good train/plane reading).

Jesus, you gays are becoming more and more desperate. So how the hell "anonymous student" that "works" there to make extra several PLNs knows which party was "the biggest consumer" and how much "PO paid" ? Hello anybody home ?? How can you people run a country if you can't even correctly implement such cheap trick ?

How do you know it was from a young guy? Without any proof you would have been more credible to write "said to be from a young guy". Especially since Angora is a liberal-leftstream rag known to fabricate and bend news to suit its agenda.

What about the Petru/PO/KOD hate industry reps. They're far more skilled becuase they've been at it for over a decade. Originally they were only PO-serving haters, but since then Petru and other trough-defenders have jumped on the bandwagon.

Ofcourse, It doesn't cost much to pay a troll to send a letter to Angora pretending to be a troll hired by PiS.

Come on who is going to be bothered by that rag? I'm sure those are lies and propaganda conjured from unwashed Adam's behind.

Apparently they're using 600 people to do this now.

Apparently you don't have reliable source to prove it not to mention not reliable source.

Quite believable, given that they need to maintain the image of Poland being at threat from 'enemies'. It's a tried and tested tactic of those that wish to undermine democracy on both sides of the political spectrum.

How do you know? Any sources other than Komitet Obrony Koryta?

They accuse others of what they are doing by themselves.

Yes, PiS certainly does a lot of that.

or so you wish?

Newsweek reports that members of European Parliament are now getting e-mails saying democracy in Poland is not endangered, and it was the previous government, the PO-PSL coalition, that was most dangerous to democracy. They're getting those emails in thousands. Identical, prefabricated emails. For example an assistant of Thomas Mann got over 1400 identical emails.

They're in english, spanish, french, german and polish. Even MEPs from PiS are getting them.
swiat.newsweek.pl/maile-do-europoslow-prawica-trolling-europarlament,artykuly,376819,1.html

Indeed. They're getting very annoyed, as two minutes research shows that it comes from niezależna.pl - which just so happens to be controlled by PiS! Still, the fact that they're getting such e-mails will certainly ensure that many MEP's start to show an interest in Polish affairs, which is entirely not what PiS wants. Good job boys!

The best bit is that the prefabricated emails are hilariously bad. Anybody who wants a good laugh should read the English version here: niezalezna.pl/74410-democracy-poland-doing-fine


Joined up government at its very finest!

Anyone with even the slightest understanding of political strategy knows that you never write such hideously biased and badly written e-mails :D

Still, keep going PiS - the more MEP's that get such e-mails, the more they'll start to investigate why someone feels the need to send them e-mails saying "everything is fine". I'd be highly suspicious if I started getting e-mails from clients telling me that everything was fine!

Merged:

Bomb Poland

Dude... I really hate every single Polish monkey around me. This Land is worth to get bombed.
Maybe we can burn this Subhuman race in ovens and send them back to Dachau.
Everytime I see such an ape, I have to gag.
Sh Poland.... *baaaah*
Poland is excrement to me. Give it EBOLA or bomb shoot every single Man/Women/Boy/Girl just for fun.
The Land of Nazi retarded faggot monkey baboons... Polish sh.
Shame on you. Inbred Mongolian apes.

Must be another angry "expat" having the hard time in Poland

@PolishSubhuman
Eat a snickers.

Now what nationality are you I wonder, clearly not a native English speaker.

Consistent with being a speaker of a Slavonic language, most likely Polish.

Probably a member of that 'hussars' troll army, looking to create online material that they and their ilk can get offended by.

I didn't know you are a conspiracy theorist jon - who would've expect

Of course you didn't know, since you just made it up as usual.

The use of troll armies in PL is well enough publicised and fairly overt. With the new one, I don't think the woman who set it up even pays them. She just gives her shills a (probably virtual) gold star.

That and fake news spreader.


Very interesting, too bad there is no reliable source to back it up, as usual.

Looks like you failed to read today's interview with the woman who runs it.