Of The Billion Or So People On The Internet...What % Do You Think Are Doing This?

So, let me try this again in a more friendly manner consistent with the protocol set forth by the powers that be...at the behest of an unnamed source I was informed I made a BOOBOO and was instructed to reword this to a conforming dialogue and to place it in a general context...so...here is the new version...Hopefully, and I did get clearance first before resubmitting...this will appease those that found it distasteful the first time around. I get it and I apologize.




I saw an article the other day and I can't really remember where...I am sure there are quite a few

that suggest the possibilities of government agents or paid shills/trolls wandering the internet,

creating loads of disinformation about scores of subjects and world wide crisis's...stirring up

the cauldron and doing their part to cause trouble throughout the daily rhetoric.

Just curious to know...if this is true (conspiracy), what do you think the percentage is on the

internet worldwide? I mean there seems to many ideal web sites to infiltrate and stir up trouble,

doesn't it?

So many topics require delicate handling...WW3, 9/11, Religion, UFO'S, etc. Certainly the

government of any country would do what they could to create as much discord as possible for

different reasons. They want to shift focus from one subject to another? They want the truth to be

impossible to recognize? Tell as many versions as possible of any particular scenario to confuse

the issue?

I think it is highly likely that this is true and I would put a percentage of the billion people

using the WWW that could be at 1%. So, doing the math with...we would have quite a few...even a

.5% would be quite a few...it doesn't really take many to do what they are paid to do. They could

create multiple Id's and spend however many hours a day they want to just pick and choose what

sites to derail/infiltrate...or which sites to conform with...or which sites to create based on

the agenda their bosses give them.

Happy Trolling to those that are being paid, congrats to you for earning your paychecks! Just for

the record, I don't think you actually have to be paid to exhibit this behavior...I think it

happens regardless, but still the likelihood of there being some that do shill/troll for a living

exist highly.

reply to post by soulpowertothendegree


That is half the fun of discussing important things on the internet. Not only do you have your own governments shills, cheaters, scammers, liars and spin doctor proxies, but you have those of every other nation, as well as those who operate on behalf of private interests.

It is why I actually find discussing world affairs seriously, rather stimulating, as one is never quite sure about the motivations of ones conversation partner or partners. Of course, it would be more EFFECTIVE for all conversation enacted anywhere to be conducted from a position of honesty, with each person only putting forward their own, unadulterated take on affairs.

However, what is most effective and helpful, is the thing rarest done on this planet, and so it is helpful to go into all scenarios from a position of awareness, with regard to the BS that some people generate, and with regard to its potential source.

I have no idea how many shills are currently employed. Probably thousands of them, the size of a large firm at least. But you've got to consider that disinformation is a full-time job for those people, they have nothing else to do. Sleep, eat, and spew disinfo. Each of them likely spend 50+hours/week posting material, over a wide range of websites, under various aliases. This is a whole lot of disinfo, for only one individual, for just a week. Now imagine that multiplied by 100,000. And now imagine this going on for a year. Two years. Ten years.

I'd say at least 10% if not more of internet content could be disinfo.

Just my two cents.

TrueBrit
reply to post by soulpowertothendegree

 

It is why I actually find discussing world affairs seriously, rather stimulating, as one is never quite sure about the motivations of ones conversation partner or partners. Of course, it would be more EFFECTIVE for all conversation enacted anywhere to be conducted from a position of honesty, with each person only putting forward their own, unadulterated take on affairs.

Amen.

How many are there out there? It depends on how you draw the lines. If one is just looking at political chatter, the number of individuals is probably very small on a forum. On twitter, you can have a magnifying effect through the use of sock puppets. Every once in a while, you can actually spot such activity on twitter where a spate of identically worded tweets get dished out at the same exact time. Such things could reasonably magnify one person into 15 or more in terms of web presence and it's not too unreasonable to assume that multiple accounts for one person may be used in other venues like facebook. In terms of the actual number of people employed, it's probably a small population but, with the way the net is, their effect could be magnified.

That's not, however, including non-political, marketing related activities. I had a friend who was paid to write reviews for various products online, something I thought was rather unsavory in its duplicity as reviews should be honest appraisals of a product for the benefit of a consumer's decision making. She and I had a total falling out, however, when she was saying one thing privately and the complete opposite publicly to save her own hide. People like her probably bump the number of "shills" up considerably and they may not get paid to do some of what they do.

My best guess is that it's most likely a small fraction of a percent of the billions of people using the internet. The problem is that, through sock puppeting, they can magnify their effect.

reply to post by soulpowertothendegree


Well if there is a job like that out there...
I wonder what they pay???
do they give you a script or leave you free to just make S**t up?

I mean dude I could have a lot of fun with a job like that

"Russian FSB agent admits to planting listening and GPS tracking into hundreds of Titleist golf balls! When asked why he did it he was quoted as saying...Well we had all these balls and all these chips..."

Sounds like my kind of gig, so any idea why I go to apply?

reply to post by soulpowertothendegree

Probably a 3% would also be high ,but that # represents the psychopaths in our society .I don't think all psychopaths are engaged in it and maybe some people are just getting paid to do it .We really don't need to wonder if it's happening .The five eyes documents point to it being so .Oh well , just one more thing to keep in mind while navigating our way through life .....peace

There are lots on ATS if you count all the times people call each other disinfo agents. Usually all it takes is someone to disagree, and boom. They must be a paid disinfo agent.
We'll never know how much, or what % is disinfo so I don't see any point to this thread.

reply to post by rangerdanger


Even I have been accused of that, which is hilarious since I have had so little to do with the government that I have only had a provisional learners driving license for about five months, and do not own a valid passport!

reply to post by rangerdanger


And yet you felt compelled to respond...The purpose was to gauge others feelings about this particular situation. I am not asking how much "disinfo" as you put it is out there...I know that number is high....my question was what percentage of the world population is actually being paid to do the shilling/trolling act on various web site...I speculated it was true and that the percentage would be rather high comparatively in the 100,000's possibly. I do see why you would ask what the point is though...but here is my thought...nobody forced you to respond or read it.

TrueBrit
reply to post by rangerdanger

 

Even I have been accused of that, which is hilarious since I have had so little to do with the government that I have only had a provisional learners driving license for about five months, and do not own a valid passport!

You and me both brother.
I don't even pay taxes.

reply to post by soulpowertothendegree


I think that if "conspiracies" exist, than open forums like this are only allowed for one thing and one thing only.

Disinformation, its easy to "troll" in these avenues when you don't know the agenda, so anyone with a horse in the race, from basement nuts, to governments could foreseeable use this to get their point across.

So its hard to say whats going on in general, from free speech of the concerned, to open manipulation, so I tend to take a larger view on things.

Look at what you can't talk about, and you might find what is real.

reply to post by TrueBrit


I agree to a point, but I would rather have honest dialogue and discussion from non-shills/non-trolls. Do you think the practice exist? And how many would you think are paid? Trolls are trolls either way...just obnoxious behavior...but being paid to do it is a rather underhanded way to make a living...sort of like the pimp/whore relationship...LOL!

soulpowertothendegree
reply to post by TrueBrit

 

I agree to a point, but I would rather have honest dialogue and discussion from non-shills/non-trolls. Do you think the practice exist?

We have no way of knowing.

rangerdanger
There are lots on ATS if you count all the times people call each other disinfo agents. Usually all it takes is someone to disagree, and boom. They must be a paid disinfo agent.
We'll never know how much, or what % is disinfo so I don't see any point to this thread.

You are an example of one who does it for free, thanks for the laugh.

soulpowertothendegree
reply to post by rangerdanger

 

.my question was what percentage of the world population is actually being paid to do the shilling/trolling act on various web site...

How would anybody possibly know that?
It's a catch 22, the only people that know about the shills, are shills. So their numbers wouldn't be accurate, because it's disinfo.

reply to post by Cathcart


So you do agree there are likely to be "paid" shills/trolls lurking on various web sites. Don't actually have to be either to create "disinfo", is it really so hard to spell the whole word? LOL! Disinformation is used without the act of trolling. Many newscasts are fed information on purpose. That being said, the amount of said disinformation I think is considerably higher than the 10% you quoted. I put that number at 40%. The problem is coming from the fact they use real and fake information and we have no idea what is what.

reply to post by rangerdanger


Well percentages are estimated guesses...and I guesstimate they exist in fairly high numbers...would you agree it is possible there are people paid to shill/troll on purpose? Do you even admit that the act of doing such behavior exist?

reply to post by ParasuvO


Glad someone else suggested it...sure had the feel of defensive "guilt" response written all over it.

reply to post by benrl


If they exist? You are on a conspiracy web site...that's hysterical Of course they exist, what percentage do you attribute to being paid to do it for an actual living though? Is 1% of a billion possible? Less? More? Way off?

reply to post by HardCorps


Not sure I would care to be one of those that is trying to purposely mislead the public by creating false information and getting paid to do it...I don't even want to do it for free...if you are an actor/actress or a performer then that is different...still there are some lines that should not be crossed. Do you have an opinion about what the percentage might be?