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Confessions of a paid hater / troll in Poland [42]
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.
