Gentleperson's Guide to Government Trolls.

Following the recent announcement that internet 'trolls' could face jail time for posting content that causes 'psychological harm'..

Trolls will be jailed for ‘psychological harm’

Trolls could face two years in prison for sending messages or posting content that causes psychological harm under legislation targeting online hate.

link

Then did wonder if this same (or similar) law would apply to paid internet 'trolls' in the form of government CoIntelPro disinfo agents and intel operative shills.



The Worst Trolls On The Internet Are The Government Trolls



If not then why not?

Harvard Law Professor Cass Sunstein, a close Obama adviser and the White House’s former head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, wrote a controversial paper in 2008 proposing that the US government employ teams of covert agents and pseudo-”independent” advocates to “cognitively infiltrate” online groups and websites, as well as other activist groups.

Sunstein also proposed sending covert agents into “chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups” which spread what he views as false and damaging “conspiracy theories” about the government.


PDF Files:

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

The ART of DECEPTION C. IGCHO. TRAINING FOR A NEW GENERATION OF ONLINE COVERT OPERATIONS.

Am sure it doesn't apply to these boards but there's some relevant info below dealing with the stark reality of CoIntelPro shills in a active, open play on internet forums.. with this handy 'Gentleperson's Guide' to spotting their odious antics.

The Gentleperson’s Guide to Forum Spies

COINTELPRO Techniques for dilution, misdirection and control of a internet forum..

There are several techniques for the control and manipulation of a internet forum no matter what, or who is on it. We will go over each technique and demonstrate that only a minimal number of operatives can be used to eventually and effectively gain a control of a ‘uncontrolled forum.’


• Technique #1 – ‘FORUM SLIDING’


• Technique #2 – ‘CONSENSUS CRACKING’


•Technique #3 – ‘TOPIC DILUTION’


• Technique #4 – ‘INFORMATION COLLECTION’


•Technique #5 – ‘ANGER TROLLING’


• Technique #6 – ‘GAINING FULL CONTROL’


Full List

Eight Traits of the Disinformationalist' and 'Twenty-Five Rules of Disinformation' are also covered in the article above and the vid below goes into more detail about the techniques employed:

Basic tips for spotting and side-stepping government web-goons.

Seems it's not just governments either and our corporate overlords also like to engage in mass, covert disinfo campaigns by employing hordes of internet trolls.

'Let Nothing Go' - corporate trolls, sock puppets and third party proxies:


Monsanto Employing Troll Army To Silence Online Dissent?


New court documents allege that Monsanto is employing an army of internet trolls to literally “Let Nothing Go” - no article, no comment, no social media post is to be left unanswered by these third party proxies.

As if all the Psy-Ops isn't bad enough it looks like nowadays it's becoming increasingly difficult to navigate the internet without falling victim to (taxpayer funded) disinfo peddling trolls so let's hope that if any new law does get passed then it applies to everyone.

a reply to: karl 12

Great bit of information in the Op so S&F... As far as a new law is concerned it is just one more way to abuse anyone who is targeted, troll or not.

You are being trolled every day if you believe in the star rating on products.

I use 18650 li-ion batteries for large battery packs and have the testers for them.

I get a number of people that want their batteries tested and have found many are Chinese counterfeits and don't meet the mAh that they show in the labels.
Many of these are sold on the internet or by vape shops

Many shows between 15% to as low as 7% of their rated mAh.
Many are overpriced and dangerous unprotected batteries and can explode in their devices

But you go to the sites that sold these batteries, and you find 5-star ratings.

Yeah, that would never happen here.

What a sucky job, eh? Getting your intellectual ass kicked daily by logic. How demoralizing.

Not that there are any here or nuthin' but if there were they'd be the most demoralized of all. I don't care how far along the sociopath scale they are---I know they'd be cussin' & dreading every shift.

'Cause we got some dead shots around here. Like yourself karl12. 🍺

[snipped]

a reply to: The GUT

Hey, anyone seen phage lately? He okay?

Good question.

He may just be taking a break as I do from time to time.

Recently I was in the fight of my life for medical/health reasons that had nothing to do with COVID. That wasn't fun, and although I maintained daily online contact with my friends and family, I just couldn't afford the time for "fun" stuff like ATS. It's hard to get excited about the latest alien sightings when you're in a hospital room and hooked up to O2 24/7 just to breathe without flopping around like a fish out of water.

I'm fine now, but...

a reply to: karl 12

Not surprised about IG Farbensanto. State sponsored mercenary trolls & shills, sockpuppets to AI bots...legions of Decepticons.

Facebook [Meta] announced the take-down of a fairly extensive troll farm network operated by the Nicaraguan government: October 2021 Coordinated Inauthentic Behavior Report [PDF]

The 50s and 80s covert Ops on the ground has transformed to Cyber warfare battlefield of layers upon layers of propaganda.
Worth remembering: information warfare is probably more often used as a tool of domestic repression than international geo-political meddling.

How can we tell whether the posts, articles and claims we see on the internet and social media sites are true? Online conspiracies and deliberately misleading, partisan content are serious issues, after all.

At Bellingcat, we research and investigate misinformation and disinformation in their many forms. Even the most logical, intelligent thinkers can be convinced by claims that are entirely untrue. In the worst cases, the impact can be severe.

Atlantic Council has a Digital Forensic Research Lab which The Atlantic & Bellingcat reference often.

And then there's this...

twitter.com...

Who can you trust?? sigh.

From Robert Mueller's report the "Internet Research Agency", a well-resourced “troll farm” is in St. Petersburg. St. Petersburg State University is a known spy recruitment center.

The Disinformation Proxy Wars (2019)

a story by The Independent about how Trump’s State Department was using troll accounts to attack anyone who was critical of the administration’s hardline stance on Iran. This was revealed by State Department officials to Congress as a means to combat Iranian Propaganda which had apparently went off the rails. The program was funded by American tax dollars and was used against Americans.

Inside a Ukrainian Troll Farm (2019)

Interference in U.S. and European elections by Russian internet trolls has become a hot topic in recent years, particularly since the discovery of the Internet Research Agency, a well-resourced “troll farm” in St. Petersburg. But it’s becoming increasingly clear that domestic troll farms — hired by local politicians and campaign managers, not foreigners — could be just as influential.

“People in the real world aren’t that educated,” a manager explained. “So if you write with grammar mistakes, this may even be a positive thing.”

Ukraine was the largest Clinton Foundation donor in the world.

Inside the British Army's secret information warfare machine (2018)

Walking through the headquarters of the 77th, the strange new reality of warfare was on display. We’ve all heard a lot about “cyberwarfare” – about how states could attack their enemies through computer networks, damaging their infrastructure or stealing their secrets. But that wasn’t what was going on here. Emerging here in the 77th Brigade was a warfare of storyboards and narratives, videos and social media. An engagement now doesn’t just happen on the battlefield, but also in the media and online. A victory is won as much in the eyes of the watching public as between opposing armies on the battlefield. Warfare in the information age is a warfare over information itself.

“It’s like an assembly line,” he continues. “They prepare the campaign, penetrate the target audience, maintain the operation, and then they strategically disengage. It is only going to get bigger.”

It’s no accident that the 77th wear the Chinthe on their shoulder. Like the Chindits, they are a new kind of force. An unorthodox one, but in the eyes of the British Army also a necessary innovation; simply reflecting the world in which we all now live and the new kind of warfare that happens within it.

UK Military Wants to Spy on Social Media to Detect “Change in Population Sentiment”

LOL. "Wants to spy"...they been doing it for years.

According to the Ministry of Defence, the 77th Brigade uses “legitimate non-military levers as a means to adapt behaviours of the opposing forces and adversaries.”

The military’s main “adversaries” are now apparently British citizens who complain about lockdown while questioning the efficacy and safety of vaccines.

Denison Barracks (51.45381, -1.28271), home to 77th Brigade British Army. They have a Psyop Warfare unit but the brigade was reshaped into 6 Columns in late 2015 and the former "15 Psychological Operations Group" was renamed to "Media Operations and Civil Affairs", less ominous.

Just down the road from the 77th Brigade in Hermitage, less than 5 miles is...

BitChute:
Oxford House (Regus), 12-20 Oxford Street, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 1JB.

Coincidence that BitChute is so close to a mil intel Psyop unit and 33 miles north is Oxford University. I think not.

The battle of perceptions, information and minds. The best weapons are the ones with plausible deniability. Stealth jets are less powerful than autistic foreign trolls with an internet connection and state sponsorship.


Australia's military-industrial-complex funded think tank, Australian Strategic Policy Institute (ASPI), which also applies to all Five Eye countries is mapping networks and another strong push for more surveillance. Funny how that article has no mention of Left-wing extremists.

Right-wing extremists ‘hiding in plain sight’ (also from ASPI)

What if an Army general could send the Rangers after internet trolls? Lt. Gen. Ted Martin imagined just such a scenario in a tongue-in-cheek video posted to his Twitter account.

U.S. GOVERNMENT COUNTERINSURGENCY GUIDE

Bygone days of Frank Church Committee...

Link to PDF

Flashback:
ATS History: COINTELPRO and "WhispersInTheDark"

Oh lord, I've rambled on too long. This stuff is endless.

originally posted by: ANNED
You are being trolled every day if you believe in the star rating on products.

Or on conspiracy site posts and threads. btw, I gave you a star for your post.

Could it be that star count is a way to identify trolls? Just askin....

I used to post a lot on Breitbart. During election season 2016, the comment section was super busy and actually had good debates, like here. It was hit hard with trolls suddenly and became unbearable. Apparently, during that time Shareblue hired an army to troll news sites and invade their comment sections and post all kinds of crap and misinformation and basic trolling....Breitbart was hit hard and I dont think they ever stopped.

I would assume the infiltrated places like this too.

Media Matters, From CTR, to Shareblue: How Paid Shills Attempt to Distort the Truth

What was once a small shill network, had turned into a globalist caliphate of deception, with limitless resources.

Using those very tech companies which the progressive elites ran, it would give David Brick the extra backing to help identify and eliminate right wing accounts which were growing in Nationalist power, and brigade them to the point their fans would either leave, or coax those accounts into breaking the social media sites' rules to get them banned.

From brand new accounts on social media, to buying older accounts, to bribing popular former celebrities to add their face to the list of names pushing out the talking points they've predetermined.

Democracy Matters - Strategic Plan for Action

Not only is David Brock the ex-boyfriend of Comet Ping Pong's James Achilles Alefantis, but his organizations have shut down political opponents and dissenting discussion through less technically advanced means such as overwhelming them on social media and getting them blackballed from the mainstream press.

Shareblue is one of Brock's lesser known, but more nefariously-connected web-based groups.

originally posted by: 727Sky

As far as a new law is concerned it is just one more way to abuse anyone who is targeted, troll or not.

Agreed mate, the 'Online Harms Bill' really does sound a bit sinister and completely open to abuse by authorities when objectively trying to define (subjective) 'psychological harm'.

Almost looks designed to be extremely easy to misinterpret with vague 'legal but harmful' offences like 'disinformation and bullying' (which I suppose could just as easily apply to the corporate media).

Apparently there are lots of folks out there who think its Orwellian capabilities will be used to shut down free enquiry, free speech and the independent media.

originally posted by: The GUT

What a sucky job, eh? Getting your intellectual ass kicked daily by logic. How demoralizing.

Yes the lowest of the low mate - can actually imagine boiler rooms full of gullible web goons (conned into thinking they're cool like Batman) desperately trying to deceive, manipulate and hoodwink their fellow countrymen on a daily basis.. although it does look to me like they work in bi-monthly shifts.

It would actually be funny (and a bit pathetic) if it wasn't so serious and not that long ago these individuals would have been prosecuted for sedition, mutiny or even treason - no wonder back in 2013 someone slipped in amended the Smith-Mundt Act.


Is the Government Conducting Psychological Operations on United States Citizens?


Yes, US Government Propaganda Use Against American Citizens Is Officially Legal Now


DOD Spends More on Domestic PsyOps Than On Foreign PsyOps

originally posted by: The GUT

I don't care how far along the sociopath scale they are---I know they'd be cussin' & dreading every shift.

Psychologically speaking it always comes out in the wash mate so let's hope (at least sometimes) they cannot look themselves on the mirror.

originally posted by: EndtheMadnessNow

Not surprised about IG Farbensanto. State sponsored mercenary trolls & shills, sockpuppets to AI bots...legions of Decepticons.

Wonderfully informative post as ever mate and when it comes to I.G. Farben still can't get over the fact that Bayer had active Nazis in their leadership roles right up to the 1970's.

Great info on those cheeky troll farms (and Bellingcat) and did once read that the Atlantic Council was saturated with members of the Trilateral Commission (just like Brookings, Aspen and the WEF) - really always seems to come back to those boys doesn't it?

"The Trilateralist Commission is international...(and)...is intended to be the vehicle for multinational consolidation of the commercial and banking interests by seizing control of the political government of the United States. The Trilateralist Commission represents a skillful, coordinated effort to seize control and consolidate the four centers of power - political, monetary, intellectual, and ecclesiastical.”

U.S. Senator Barry Goldwater

The Rockefeller World: The CFR and the Trilateral Commission

Also some pretty fascinating reading there about the 77th Brigade and yes it is funny how there's never any mention of far left extremists (they definitely exist as I've seen them burning down Main Street).

originally posted by: EndtheMadnessNow

The military’s main “adversaries” are now apparently British citizens who complain about lockdown while questioning the efficacy and safety of vaccines.

Yes so basically the people who pay their wages are now their adversaries.. and people who do not mindlessly accept big pharmedia propaganda (but do quote actual scientific studies) are their targets - topsy turvy clown world strikes again.

That Counterinsurgency guide also made for some very interesting reading and really was put in mind of this vid involving well funded, non governmental foundations sponsoring activist groups, agitators and agent provocateurs to create massive civil unrest.

a reply to: shaemac

Thanks for the links and very relevant info Shaemac - a 'globalist caliphate of deception' indeed and also saw there was once a psy-ops unit running out of CNN.

Suppose they may try to dress it up in fancy terminology like 'cognitive infiltration' and 'perception management' but at the end of the day it's just all plain lying bullsh•t.

a reply to: karl 12

Thanks for the always timely thread K-Pop.

Timely indeed because we are overrun will trills and strolls, as the power-play is in full-swing.

Once asked a wise man why there were so many dishonest people in the world.

He pondered a while before answering : " There is no point in asking why wolves and foxes exist in the forest. One can only prepare oneself accordingly. "

Yes, a very timely thread indeed.

The UK getting hit with this, a long time in the making.
The strangest part of all is that there were actual online
trolls who formed internet "gangs" and stalked folks
and harassed them, threatened them as part of the set
up to create cases that were then used to justify the
UK legislation. Yes, I am saying that the trolls worked
to create the narrative that they needed!

The same thing happens here in the U.S. If one wishes
to know who might be behind this, look no further than
those who are pushing control over free speech, and
censoring people on all social media.

a reply to: burntheships
Another sharpshooter shows up. And one of my all time favorites at that. Fact.

Hello bts. Big hug, sister.

originally posted by: Nothin

Timely indeed because we are overrun will trills and strolls, as the power-play is in full-swing.

Nice forest analogy there mate and don't think you're wrong about that power play either.

Bit of a naive puff piece but think the vid below has the honour of being the first time the 'CoIntelPro web goon' subject ever got brought up in the corporate media (in relation to the Canadian Federal Government).





Given our current rather dire predicament also thought the article below was an extremely important one as it basically implicates 'big pharma' in the production of fake 'VNR' news propaganda.

"Well, it’s like this. First of all, we’re talking about fake news. These are news stories done by journalists, but these are journalists who now work for public relations firms employed by the State Department, employed by pharmaceutical companies, and they’re producing news stories, video news releases, which are provided free to TV networks and TV stations, and are then aired by TV networks and news producers as if they were news, often as if they were produced locally by the station. And what this is, actually, is propaganda"

John Stauber

State Propaganda: How Government Agencies Produce Hundreds of Pre-Packaged TV Segments the Media Runs as News

a reply to: karl 12

Yes, and CIA and NASA too as we well know!

The Trilateral Commission has certainly given us decades of Heinz Kissinger & Zbigniew Brzezinski TLC!

Regarding the enlightening Truthstream refresher vid you might find this one quite amusing.

CIA Freebird video. What an epic Masterpiece!! Extracting all the frames tells quite a story. On the ground it is very difficult to ascertain the bad guys from the good, but we know the planners & funders of true evil sit behind desks in ivory towers.

The (Literally) Unbelievable Story of the Original Fake News Network

Once upon a time in Guatemala, the CIA hired a cocky American actor and two radio DJs to launch a revolution and oust a president. Their playbook is being used against the U.S. right now.

How to subvert a nation in 6 steps. This is part one of a deep dive 7-part series into the original fake news network. You can read or listen to the whole fantastic detailed story.

originally posted by: burntheships

Yes, a very timely thread indeed.

The UK getting hit with this, a long time in the making.

The strangest part of all is that there were actual online trolls who formed internet "gangs" and stalked folks and harassed them, threatened them as part of the set up to create cases that were then used to justify the
UK legislation. Yes, I am saying that the trolls worked to create the narrative that they needed!

Burntheships would like to echo TheGut's comments and say very nice to see you - would also wholeheartedly agree this has been a very long time in the making ..and all funded by those lovely tax dollars (and pounds).

Read about sentient psyops a while back (apparently there are several in play at any one time) and regarding your post thought this link was an extremely relevant one.



Online Psyops and Perception Management in the Targeted Community



Also, just so we're all aware of what to look for, here are nine strategies for bullsh•tting the public.. also known as 'Perception Management'.

There are nine strategies for perception management. These include:


1. Preparation — Having clear goals and knowing the ideal position you want people to hold.


2. Credibility — Make sure all of your information is consistent, often using prejudices or expectations to increase credibility.


3. Multichannel support — Have multiple arguments and fabricated facts to reinforce your information.


4. Centralized control — Employing entities such as propaganda ministries or bureaus.


5. Security — The nature of the deception campaign is known by few.


6. Flexibility — The deception campaign adapts and changes over time as needs change.


7. Coordination — The organization or propaganda ministry is organized in a hierarchical pattern in order to maintain consistent and synchronized distribution of information.


8. Concealment — Contradicting information is destroyed.


9. Untruthful statements — Fabricate the truth.