Question: To what extent are disinformation agents active on ATS?

a reply to: tetra50

Of course I understand, I'd have asked too.

originally posted by: hearows
I don't think there's anything interesting enough here to warrant the attention of alphabet soup agencies.

It's not a secure enough forum for much whistleblowing activity and it's certainly not high enough traffic. It's full of half baked conjecture to the point where disinformation sells itself here.

I'm sure the idea that there are agencies working to make sure this group doesn't expose some hidden truth is flattering to membership, it's just a bit egotistical to believe that the opinions and theories here are revolutionary enough to warrant action from TPTB.

I fully understand that the govt has recorded information about forum use, and it's likely that membership here sends up the occasional red flag in a database somewhere, but I highly doubt we'd rank any real concern.

Now, I've known honest to god military intelligence folks on assignment to cyber security, and they do look on social media... But he was just a sweet dude looking for terrorists post 9/11. He didn't have an ulterior motive or seem to carry any deep dark secrets. I grew up around high ranking military folks and very few of them seemed truly perturbed. I think folks forget sometimes that most government folks are just people trying to do their jobs and live out relatively mundane lives.

And aliens? Aliens I'm sure would have the technology to avoid our perception if they wanted to, indefinitely. I highly doubt first contact would be through an internet forum, or that empirical evidence would ever surface here first.

You nailed it. Government intel agencies have enough to do without worrying about this site. The posts mostly speak for themselves....and to think anyone in the government cares what is said here is giving this site far too much credit.

The Pentagon likes the idea of UFO's. It serves as a very nice cover for TS research in aircraft design. It always has, all the way back to the Roswell incident, which was the first foray into Stealth research.

originally posted by: icewater
You nailed it. Government intel agencies have enough to do without worrying about this site. The posts mostly speak for themselves....and to think anyone in the government cares what is said here is giving this site far too much credit.

I don't think it's giving the site too much credit. I think it is a situation of posters giving themselves too much credit.

It's ego. And you should agree with me because, as any long timers here at ATS can tell you, I know ego.

Harte

a reply to: Harte

You why there are government bots on this site and not government agents?

Simply put as it was before already, they have better things to do. With that said, they do want to gleam as much info as they can and database it so they can run analytics and simulations or even run backward searches via keywords to try an find such and such.

Metadata is the new detectives.

a reply to: Outrageo

I'm sure there are some. There are probably disinfo agents on any related website.

The thing to remember which is very important, is to not fall into the trap of labeling someone a disinfo agent if they disagree with you, or require sufficient evidence to substantiate a claim.

I have been here for a long time and I have seen it many times.

a reply to: Outrageo
I would say that on ATS and other sites as well generally 90% of the people you think you meet are one form or another of dis info agents, trolls, or just clowns and goofing around, the only ones who would know what is what would probably be the trolls who know there trolls, the rest are merely acting consciously, and the rest are unconsciously acting.

Now how many times on this site has somebody or some sort of famous member done a complete turn around on issues? Generally everything online is one form or another of dis info, most especially if its a hot topic. I would not take anything in any form of social media to serious. It is for the most part dis info and shill games, its like herding sheep, funny no what the power of opinions in random and the obliqueness of internet text on a screen can do to people.

Its kind of like whack a mole, or that hot button game people play. Forgot the name of it...But its unimportant, like most 99.9% of the hot topics you will see or ever see in any medium of social media, ATS being no different, now a day more so them before, before there used to be at least some interesting things. Now? Not so much, just more trolls and shillz, sock puppets or just puppets, and a great majority of people easily lead by there hot buttons, let just call them string, you pull them and lo and behold its like those little wind up toy soldiers.

We life in a conceptual realty after all, some people just don't realize that. And if there is any real actual issues? Well you will never hear of them. But you will feel them when they hit you. However most social media outlets is pandering for one group or another for there own reasons, most of those reasons leading to more $$$ for them, for the most part.

Press the red button for inflammatory retorts. I wold not take anything you read online this site or others all that serious at all.

originally posted by: Outrageo
Specifically regarding Aliens and UFO subject matter:

Are there disinformation agents active on ATS?

You see them all the time starting threads on "UFO"'s and "aliens" - just look recently where some tried to claim a mummy of a child was a alien, or birds and balloons are UFO's.

To what extent are these agents active? Who do they represent? Alphabet-Acronym Government organizations?

They represent themselves trying to get hits on youtube, or to sell video's of aliens and bigfoot etc.

If government, are they Domestic or Foreign or Both?

Why do you think governments would be interested in ATS? I am sure people who work for governments read and post here, they like a smile as much as anyone.

DISINFORMATION
Disinformation is intentionally false or inaccurate information that is spread deliberately. It is an act of deception and false statements to convince someone of untruth. Wikipedia

Like pictures of dust as "orbs", or insects and birds as "UFO's"? Or do you mean the rocks om Mars that are aliens, cities, robots etc. etc.

who is paying them? WHY ARE THEY LYING TO US?

Any proof to back that up? Looks like someone from one of the 3 letter agencies just read the handbook "How to be a disinformation poster" and is applying lesson 1/

"Always accuse others of being disinformation agents to cover up your own disinformation"!

a reply to: hellobruce
Oh is this about aliens? My bad I thought this was about other type of disinfo and all that stuff. Duh! In the alien & UFO forums.

But ya! On aliens and other life out there? Well I think if there is, and I also think that some could tell you more about you or me or anybody else place on this rock and universe and our place in it, more then we know, or ever could know really.

But I really don't think you would need disinfo agents to keep people in the dark. People are quite capable of doing that themselves, they need no help.

Look even science is catching up to there being other live baring planets out there. Though there definition of "life" is still pretty limited and primitive. But for the most part I think if there are aliens out there, not many are all that interested in this place. And of those that are, this place would be just an experiment or there here for there own projects and interests or reasons.

I think people just want to face something other than the most obvious truth. I've been called one of those disinformation spreaders w/e you want to call them. I'm just really aggressive with debunking since I can't stand ignorance. I feel a lot of people will good intentions sully the efforts of the others because of what they believe in. For instance, people are just so keen to jump on the irrational when it just takes a moment of clear thinking, a google search, and boom you've solidified your belief / statement / whatever.

A perfect example are all those people who post pictures of the moon or mars, jumping at things such as artifacts (from the splicing of the images) to shadows played out by rocks. Or even a particular rock formation has some kind of otherworldly purpose or design, when in actuality it can be explained as being a natural occurrence. Often, it's because those same occurrences can be found on Earth through perfectly natural geological means!

The bottom line is, the UFO community hurts itself by approaching a field with such barbaric means. There are tried and true ways of explaining phenomena, but the methods some people use are about as useful as those used over 2000 years ago. Some people explained all the happenings in the world around to supernatural devices, yet others use their heads and realized that there are patterns to things which are, over time, explainable. Just about every ancient civilization has some whacked-out creation story, yet also every one had people who would go on and observe/record phenomena only to realize there was indeed structure, and reason, to mostly everything.

Either way, the point is this: stop, think, and be reasonable. Stop trying to reinvent the wheel, other people have done it and do a better job of it than you. The most anyone can do, who isn't working a computer hooked up to a telecope like the ones on Hawaii, is twiddle their thumbs for others to do the work for them. Become an actual researcher (A REAL researcher) in your field of choice. Or better yet, give your money to other scientific organizations, they -desperately- need funding.

I have at least one friend who did get a job working for NASA and eventually got moved to work at CERN. He loves it. At the same time, its so boring since everything takes forever. I have another friend who works for the FBI, and I can guarantee you the 'spooks' could care less about a bunch of people on a stupid forum. They have more important things to worry about like pedophile rings, foreign hackers, and international terrorists who want to destroy our society.

Heres another sad thing. You know all those people who claim to have alien encounters, met with super secret government officials, or claim to be able to do things like remote viewing? They all write and sell books. It's a business. The best way to get rich is not by saving your money, it's by creating a product for others to consume. You take other people's money so that you have it, then you take that money and invest it. That is what all these people do. It's the same story for any of those 'this is how you get rich...' self-help people, either offline or online. They sell you a product, you give them your money and make them rich.

It's the same thing. You're free to believe what you want, but the truth is that it's a business. People have always been this way.

a reply to: CidCaldensfey


One day, we will look back on the wheel and guffaw loudly at how we wasted so much of the world's precious resources on such a dead end closed loop technology . Plus, the number of people who've made their fortunes from writing books on UFOs is a list of one and that's Daniken.

There are dozens of Ufologists who've never published a single work for money who do it cos, well simply, that's what they do. Furthermore, to claim there are no "disinfo merchants" on this site flies in the face of the actual evidence. There have been serious deep thinking threads in this part of the forum, that have unearthed and contained more information than has ever been published in the mainstream and they have nearly always attracted serial idiot posters whose only motivation would seem to clearly be, to try and destroy a threads continuity and make them unpalatable to the casual observer so that they they give up trying to sort out the wheat from the chaff. That doesn't mean they work for any government, they have their own ego that can't handle that they are reading so, they try to ruin a thread for purely personal reasons, to the detriment of everyone else.

originally posted by: OtherSideOfTheCoin
The thing that always gets me about this idea of having "shills" working on ATS is this:

Why bother?

Think about the amount of utter crap that is on this site, just stuff that is quite obviously total bollocks, why would they need disinfo agents, what are they going to do, post yet more pictures of Martian rocks?

I am sure that there is someone sitting in a office at the NSA who every now and then might have a little peek at what is being said on ATS and other conspiracy sites but nothing more.

I would think that they are more interested in social media sites than conspiracy sites.

aTs is just a piece of the pie, probably a small one, but how else do you measure group think? The trend is what they look for and when one presents itself it gets attention. Facebook, tweeter, pinkerist, instagross, yahoo, ny times... The list goes on and on. Programs wade thru the metadata and recognize patterns. Humans intervene at some point, but that won't be the case forever.

So I don't really believe there people on this site acting as disinformation agents for some group.

That doesn't mean 'someone' or something is not watching and listening

a reply to: ZombieWoof

Reety Alrighty.

Harte

Well I guess in the chemtrails forum I'd be regarded as a government agent/shill/troll, since I debunk 'chemtrails'. But unlike chemtrails, UFO's have a bit more merit to me. I've seen some weird stuff myself, actually, which would technically qualify as a UFO. Also, there's some pretty interesting (government/military) documentation and credible witness accounts when it comes to UFO's, again unlike chemtrails.

I'm not saying UFO's point to aliens though. They're just unknowns.. If we knew what was behind them, they wouldn't be UFO's.

I firmly believe that there are a considerable number of disinformation agents on ATS and moderators sometimes censor threads that hit at the core of the issues. But overall I say the site is redeemed by those roosters that actually are privy. You have to wade through a lot of inconsequential bs before you serendipitously unearth the marrow. It takes a skeptical mind pervious enough to understand esoteric truths to navigate this site without being misled. That is just my take but I am a new member to the site.

One alarming thing is that on another thread about the preponderance of the Omega Agency people actually agreed with the proposed plan to be so draconian on crime that they abolish lawyers and lynch non-violent criminals or send them to work camps. The fact that some posters subscribe to those repugnant beliefs makes me likely to infer that disinfo abounds

I agree with many of the posters on their comments on this topic. I am convince there are trolls, are deliberately being done to derail some thread topic, such as 911 and UFO's. Why? Because these issues are top secrete to begin with. The government and military have publicly come and said they have trained keyboard OP's to infiltrate social media sites and that would include ATS.

Yes, There Are Paid Government Trolls On Social Media, Blogs, Forums And Websites
thefreethoughtproject.com...

HOW COVERT AGENTS INFILTRATE THE INTERNET TO MANIPULATE, DECEIVE, AND DESTROY REPUTATIONS
firstlook.org...

How to deal with a key board OP's is to ignore them and carry out your discussion with members who are interested in the Topic at hand. Yes there are Trolls who love to disrupt a good topic because it is fun for them. I am not trying to put ATS down by no means, I love this site, there are so many wonderful topics every day on this site and News from around the world, including Science, and personal stories that I enjoy reading. The best of all you get to know stuff that main stream media dare not talk about.

Are there paid disinformation Key Board Op's on ATS? I do not know, the fact is there is no proof.

originally posted by: Informer1958
I agree with many of the posters on their comments on this topic. I am convince there are trolls, that are deliberately derailing some thread topic, such as 911 and UFO's. Why? Because these issues are top secrete to begin with. The government and military have publicly come and said they have trained keyboard OP's to infiltrate social media sites and that would include ATS.

Yes, There Are Paid Government Trolls On Social Media, Blogs, Forums And Websites
thefreethoughtproject.com...

HOW COVERT AGENTS INFILTRATE THE INTERNET TO MANIPULATE, DECEIVE, AND DESTROY REPUTATIONS
firstlook.org...

How to deal with a key board OP's is to ignore them and carry out your discussion with members who are interested in the Topic at hand. Yes there are Trolls who love to disrupt a good topic because it is fun for them. I am not trying to put ATS down by no means, I love this site, there are so many wonderful topics every day on this site and News from around the world, including Science, and personal stories that I enjoy reading. The best of all you get to know stuff that main stream media dare not talk about.

Are there paid disinformation Key Board Op's on ATS? I do not know, the fact is there is no proof.

edit on 14-7-2015 by Informer1958 because: (no reason given)

I agree with many of the posters on their comments on this topic. I am convince there are trolls, that are deliberately derailing some thread topic, such as 911 and UFO's. Why? Because these issues are top secrete to begin with. The government and military have publicly come and said they have trained keyboard OP's to infiltrate social media sites and that would include ATS.

Yes, There Are Paid Government Trolls On Social Media, Blogs, Forums And Websites
thefreethoughtproject.com...

HOW COVERT AGENTS INFILTRATE THE INTERNET TO MANIPULATE, DECEIVE, AND DESTROY REPUTATIONS
firstlook.org...

How to deal with a key board OP's is to ignore them and carry out your discussion with members who are interested in the Topic at hand. Yes there are Trolls who love to disrupt a good topic because it is fun for them. I am not trying to put ATS down by no means, I love this site, there are so many wonderful topics every day on this site and News from around the world, including Science, and personal stories that I enjoy reading. The best of all you get to know stuff that main stream media dare not talk about.

Are there paid disinformation Key Board Op's on ATS? I do not know, the fact is there is no proof.

a reply to: Outrageo

ATS is not important enough or big enough to warrant "disinfo agents"... trolls sure.

originally posted by: Kandinsky
a reply to: Outrageo

However, you might find this intriguing and I can only say so much about it. A certain, credible member made a series of popular posts and threads and did it all without leaving a trace. Maybe they were a 'paid disinfo agent' or an independent mischief-maker? We'll probably never know because they executed it all without so much as a fingerprint left behind.

That's all I can say about it.

Appreciate you cant discuss the issue further but could you describe (generically) how an ATS member would go about gaining "credibility" to the point where staff members would vouch for them?

Or even... if this member disappeared without leaving a fingerprint (trust your judgement on that) what harm is there in naming names and detailing their process of earning credibility as all information would be available publicly anyway?

Would be nice to see them come back to complain.

a reply to: Informer1958

Or just join a MUTUAL BACK SLAPPING site were everybody agrees with you and then nobody needs their PARANOIA meds!