Government hired internet trolls

Good vid here about CoIntelPro and I think a person would have to be painfully naive to think it doesn't happen.





Just my personal opinion but I also think it goes on a lot in UFO forums around the internet.

a reply to: BrokedownChevy

I would love to admit I was a paid troll but sadly they haven't contacted me to get on the payroll. .. would you be a dear and pass on my info so I can get me some of that there money check?

a reply to: Telepathy3

Yes, there are paid government trolls and many of them spend considerable time and effort here on ATS. Of this I have no doubt.

Yea for real though, everybody agrees they're hired to do so but does anyone have a good idea as to
1. How they find people to hire
2. What kind of ppl do they hire from (I mean, it can't be one of those college job boards with 100 tabs at the bottom to tear off if interested that end up getting u an offer to sell knives)
3. Do they therefore only hire from within
4. Could we be wrong about this (consider the implication- the gov would have to divulge the truth about superduperclassified & confidential topics)
5. Does anyone here have anecdotal evidence or better yet tangible evidence that they've been approached for this? If so what did you end up doing and on what site? Who paid you and how much?

All I can make sense of is that this could only work if they waited for real legit journalists who have discovered the truth and become pretty big (like Art Bell, David Icke, or Alex Jones) and convinced THEM to "turn to the dark side," for lack of better terms so nothing would need to be divulged, just X amount of money agreed upon to begin turning the info being leaked slowly but surely to what in the end will always end up being provable to be false, debunkable, historically wrong, originating from an untrustworthy source, etc. until this paid person himself is never again trusted about anything.

originally posted by: Informer1958
a reply to: hellobruce

Have a look at the 9/11 threads, those pushing silly ideas like mini nukes, nano thermite, explosives etc. are probably paid government trolls posting made up nonsense to show how silly truthers actually are, all to hide the governments intelligence failures over 9/11.

Are you suggesting that all the ATS er's that don't go along with the OS are paid Trolls, right?

There is only a handful of ATS posters that support the OS completely. Most of us on ATS know there is a serious problem with the OS specially with the WTC.

First rule in disinformation is to attack anyone who dares to question or has a different of "opinions" of said topic and ridicule them by insulting them personally, as you just demonstrated by calling us (silly Truthers).

If your not a Truther, then what are you?

It seems that's what it's all about, eh? If one does not accept the official narrative, one is a troll, an idiot, or some other derogatory term.

If one questions the government story, one is some sort of heretic or terrible person. Pretty sick.

a reply to: crimsongod21

OK there's a few openings. Let me see...

Walmart is hiring trolls to defend their low wages. Want to try that for a little while? If you build up your troll resume I think I can get some people in the government to consider you for trolling yahoo news articles.

a reply to: Informer1958

I have to agree with you, if an ATS member only posts to the 9/11 forum as an active staunch supporter of the OS this is very suspicious. I have seen a few of these over the years some have stopped posting on ATS now. And never even come here anymore, they weren't banned either, I have to wonder was their contract finished ?

The one you mentioned could be a single account manned in 2 or 3 shifts by different people.

a reply to: Telepathy3

Some facets of the media have bots that can 'write' articles; If that is possible then the Idea of 'trollbots' has to be considered.

originally posted by: Informer1958
The fact is, Government paid trolls are everywhere and most social website have them.

The only time I have come in contact with a few is when I am discussing 911, Kennedy assassination, or UFO's.

I am convinced that if the owners of ATS knew they have a paid troll on their site, I am sure they would Banned that particular member.

However, I don't believe ATS doesn't have the time to censer every members content and posting habits. That is my opinion and I may be wrong, I really don't know.

However I believe we have one on the 911 forums and I continue to have run in with this member.

Absolutely, I think I know who you mean. Always uses the word "Truther" as a derogatory comment towards those who do not believe in the official conspiracy theory. This person is either a very sad individual or putting in that extra overtime to pay the bills.

It made national news that the UK government were hiring thousands of government paid "trolls" to sway public opinion. So no doubt other governments especially the US are doing the same.

a reply to: BrokedownChevy

Sign me up, im not afraid to sling a little mud, not here mind you but in other areas around the web. i could use the money to help pay some med bills so whats wrong with me arguing for a companies right to pay there employees based on there business model? I mean honestly its not the governments right to dictate how much a company pays its employees if you wanted a job that payed well you should have actively persued one. Its not all college and degrees you can find great jobs that do not require a college degree so put the effort in and do something with your life.



heheheheee just a taste of what i can bring walmart if they are willing to start paying me.

a reply to: Telepathy3

Sure there are trolls. However, many people mistake "a difference of opinion" for shills and trolls of the government. It is the easy way out for a lot of people, more so when you can't present a good counter-argument of what is being discussed.

If the poster that differs in opinion with that of certain people in this website, and of course probably others as well, many people simply claim "must be a government shill" because these people can't debate and don't want to think that they simply might be wrong...

originally posted by: AlexandrosTheGreat
Does anyone have a good idea as to
1. How they find people to hire

CIA managed to get operatives into Time magazine. Since then they've also donated money to movements, projects, and people when it has suited their needs. Often this work is done anonymously, and it suits both the national and international MO of many intelligence agencies. This completely bypasses risky direct hiring practices and ensures the money goes to 'true believers.'

If one of them fails? Stop paying them.

2. What kind of ppl do they hire from

Why advertise for a college grad or something like that when you can pay to support someone with an existing audience platform or growing one?

Feed them information now and then; keep most of it true so when you have to lie they'll forgive you or turn a blind eye. In a capitalistic system where media outlets rely on patronage of citizens they are reliant on those 'insiders' who can supply the best information. Furthermore once they have a core audience they have to weigh up continued success vs the truth. Many people will go for continued success and refuse to alienate their audience.

3. Do they therefore only hire from within

Historically speaking I would *guess* most agencies have transitioned towards not hiring at all. Primarily they donate money to be people who they know are wrong, ask favors from citizens, or feed information into the loop from outside sources.

It's dangerous for an intelligence agency to actually hire anyone who could have power over them and they would at least mitigate this issue by ensuring the hire was a true believer or was completely unaware they had been hired in the first place.

4. Could we be wrong about this (consider the implication- the gov would have to divulge the truth about superduperclassified & confidential topics)

Would need to specify where the wrong is.

5. Does anyone here have anecdotal evidence or better yet tangible evidence that they've been approached for this? If so what did you end up doing and on what site? Who paid you and how much?

Question more is how did people like Alex Jones get the funding to turn full time. I'm not saying I've researched Alex Jones enough to call this sinister, but the CIA has funded UFO research before, too.

They don't actually need to wait on them getting big because a big pile of cash for an ordinary person is like 0.01% of the annual snack budget. $100, 000k is enough to keep a project alive and it's nothing to the organizations we're talking about. 300k to group A, 100k to person Y, 250k to lobby group D ... it's still nothing to them.

They don't necessarily need to convince an individual poster to troll / shill. They need to pay one person to continue giving a trusted group of people the information they need to turn into accidental troll / shills.

originally posted by: MysterX
a reply to: Pinke
some techie bright spark decided to trace - route the servers here at ATS and found the trail led them to 'Langley, Virginia'...

The owners of the site actually respond to that. The thread they discuss it in is still up and they mention it here and there. Check SO's post history.

Side Note: It's obvious that many countries and orgs have different approaches to this. Countries such as Korea use blatant techniques such as youtube videos and propaganda. Russia funds CNN like news websites. Hollywood and games producers bot upvotes on metacritic. It's also just generally easier to hire people for propaganda jobs in poor countries. Some authors hire them regularly.

a reply to: Telepathy3

I honestly believe that the large majority of young earth creationists and climate change deniers are trolls. Some sponsored by political interest groups, some sponsored by religious interest groups, and some sponsored by atheists to make them look bad. They are definitely out there, although I'm not 100% sure of the government, although with the large amount of disinfo out there, it wouldn't surprise me. I'd personally think it would be more about big corporations than the government. They have the resources and in reality could easily afford to pay folks to do something like that.

Here's a quick list to help people separate the trolls from the legitimate folk.

1. Does the person cite legitimate logical evidence when making claims or do they source nothing but propaganda sites?

2. Does the person admit when he/she is wrong or do they act infallible and treat anybody who disagrees as inferior or stupid?

3. Does the person ignore all counterpoints and evidence presented against their position, or are they willing to upgrade their understanding if they misunderstand something or if they see conflicting evidence?

4. Does the vast majority of the person's argument involve the use of fallacies?

5. Does the person rely on repeating their original claim over and over again in circular fashion, or do they actually let the conversation progress beyond the original claim?

Usually it's pretty obvious.

a reply to: Pinke

Thanks Pinke, i'll have a ganda at it.

But really, i don't know why there's even the question asking about Gov agents getting involved in sites like ATS.

Back a few years or so ago, the US government actually admitted that they were going to do this...was it John Podesta wqho said so?

Actually it could have been the Bush Jnr staff and not Clintons, but either way ONE of the Gov high ups actually said it on TV..they wanted to get into boards like ours, and basically do what a shill does, misdirect the flow of threads, create straw man arguments and so on.

Wish i could remember the guys name, ah well.

a reply to: Telepathy3

I thought this was known, wasn't there an article a long time ago about the Obama administration hiring internet trolls? I've noticed a pretty big change in ATS over the past several years...it doesn't have the same 'deny ignorance' feel as it once did and there seems to be less about ghosts/ufos/other popular conspiracies and more about social issues

a reply to: MysterX

It was during W's reign and after the patriot act was passed if i remember correctly ATS was even named as one they were going to look into, i cant remember what the exact events were leading up to it, but i think it had to do with either a cult or a shooting that took place like when the Arizona senator was shot and it was found out that the shooter had posted here on ATS before doing so. or maybe im remembering all wrong i cant tell lol

originally posted by: Barcs

That list is pretty silly.

That describes just about everybody arguing with anyone on the internet for the last twenty years.

How many times do you find "legitimite folk" willing to "upgrade their understanding if they see conflicting evidence?"

originally posted by: Informer1958

However I believe we have one on the 911 forums and I continue to have run in with this member.

Whatever conspiracy (if any) happened with 911 they got away with it a long time ago.

Nothing is going to happen at this point and it's completely unnecessary to pay anyone to debate the issue online.

So it's probably just someone who feels strongly about the issue as is the case with most participants here.

Judging by the comments on ATS, there must be 100 paid Palestinian trolls for every 1 pro-Israeli....personally I doubt there are any paid Israeli trolls....However, most of the pro-Palestinian trolls are most-likely paid by the Obama administration...