How does the Russian "trolley factory" in the US: an interview with an ex-employee

Фото: Depositphotos

The theme of the Russian trace in the US election has been discussed for several months. At the end of September Facebook He informed the US Congress about fake accounts and procurement of political advertising in the interests of Russia during the presidential campaign of 2016. Then it turned out that Russia used the site to influence the sympathies and moods of the Americans. Googlemicroblog Twitter and even the game Pokemon Go.

The “Internet Research Agency” from St. Petersburg, also known as the trolley factory, reappeared in a number of publications, since the main purpose of this organization’s work is to try to influence public opinion with the help of fake accounts in social networks.

Edition "Rain" I managed to talk with a former employee of this agency who was engaged in "changing opinions" abroad.

Interview

At first it seemed to me that there was a tough selection there, and I somehow squeezed through it unrealistically. At the interview asked about the "Rain" and Navalny. I said that I don’t go to rallies, I don’t translate Navalny's money, I read Putin and Solovyov. Mainly SPbSU-shniki worked there: filfakovtsy, FMO-shniki (faculty of international relations), orientalists, there were many guys who graduated from the journalism department.

Foreign department

At first, it seems to me, in the foreign department they did not pursue the number of posts, tried to work efficiently. There was such a dismissive attitude towards the Russian department - there are bots, trolls sitting there, and we are forming an agenda for foreigners, we influence it. There was a goal - to influence opinions, to bring to the discussion. Argumenting is not only: Obama is a monkey, and Putin is a good fellow. This is not taken, even fined for it.

In the English department, there is another accountability: there it was necessary to measure the reaction. The reaction is how many likes you were given, the comment should have caused a discussion.

There was a strategy paper. It was necessary to know all the main problems of the United States of America. Tax problems, the problem of gay, sexual minorities, weapons.

What can troll

You were given a list of media that you had to monitor and comment. New York Times, Washington Post - it reached tens of thousands of comments. It was necessary to view all this and understand the general trend, what people write about, what they argue about. And then get into the argument yourself to kindle it, try to rock the boat.

The most common topics are carrying weapons, gays. When we were gay, we almost always had to talk about religious topics. Americans are very religious, especially those who sit on forums, news sites and write comments. It was necessary to write that sodomy is a sin. This could always bring you a couple of dozen likes.

About Russia in general is impossible. Neither Russia nor Putin could be mentioned. Because Americans do not talk about it. They, in fact, do not care about Russia and Putin.

We did not have the goal of turning the Americans towards Russia. Our goal was to turn the Americans against their own government. Cause unrest, displeasure, downgrade Obama's rating.

What can not troll

It was forbidden to work on foreign media without VPNs, and if you were caught in the light of the fact that you were lit up with a Russian IP address, a scam arrived.

One person was severely scolded for making a photo in the building. A photograph, as is well known, contains metadata and can be tracked by geolocation. Apparently, the social networks of each person were monitored.

American politics

Hillary Clinton - everything is always bad about her, she was extinguished. About merged emails, about the fact that she is rich. The main message: are you, my brothers, the Americans, not tired of the Clintons, how many have already been there? Corruption scandals - there too.

"House of cards"

At first, we were forced to voluntarily-compulsorily watch the "House of Cards" in English. We had classes in English: we examined each other’s comments, what mistakes, how not to write. Here present perfect, and here - past simple, and here it is necessary to put an apostrophe, "and here why did you put a comma, they do not put a comma as we put it." In fact, we taught each other.

Read also on ForumDaily:

How Russia rules the world-American media

US intelligence: Russia's intervention in elections took place on Putin’s personal order

Russia tried to incite racial hatred in the United States with Pokemon Go

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