A legion of anti-sectarian trolls is operating on the Internet

August 21, 2013 · Alexander Sinitsky, Evangelical Christians, Vestibule, Russia, Contemporary Persecution, Security Services, Ukraine

Article from Moscow’s Novaya Gazeta. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OIYZkeGKSMg (Photos of the well-known anti-sectarian troll Alex Sinitsky, a characteristic figure of the anti-sectarian campaign).

In the best traditions of the anti-sectarian propaganda of the godless USSR, the war against God and His people continues with modern methods — through the internet. In the 1930s, believers were not treated with ceremony — they were shot or sent to their deaths in Siberia. The forcible removal of children from believing parents continued until the 1970s. Imprisonments in the USSR went on into the 1980s. In 1983, a demonstrative mass murder of ministers was carried out — in every region, one minister or family member of an emigration-movement activist was killed without trial or investigation.
To neutralize the population’s reaction to the genocide of believers, outright lies were launched — propaganda that painted the image of a bloodthirsty sectarian despot. The notoriously provocative film Clouds over Borsk from the beginning of Khrushchev’s persecution of the church in the early 1960s, after which young people would go out to beat Protestants. Brainwashing in schools and institutes, anti-religious agitation on television, by lecturers at enterprises, persecution and disruption of meetings by the 5th Directorate of the KGB, the imprisonment of active believers and the inducement of them to secretly betray the church of Christ through collaboration with the KGB — these are just a few of the methods used to destroy the church of Jesus Christ during the Soviet regime.
In the age of the internet, anti-sectarian hysteria is stirred up by internet trolls from the special services. According to statistics, in 2005 a rapid decline began in the time spent watching television in favor of time spent by people on the internet. That is why there is such an interest in propaganda against God and His church — to keep people in the kingdom of darkness of this age and at the same time to slander and defame the pillar and ground of the Truth on earth — God’s church.
The Zhytomyr troll Sinitsky and hundreds like him, writing on Christian forums, Facebook, VKontakte, YouTube, are imbued with hatred for a church independent of the Soviet legacy, a church that found itself through the Exodus to America. The legionnaires lack the Spirit of God, and they are people who do not know the Lord Jesus — never having repented of their sins. Behind the hapless nicknames hide paid professional trolls. Their maximum aim is to draw people into the anti-sectarian campaign and steer it in a direction advantageous for destroying the remnants of the church — the truth-seeking Protestants.
It was precisely the struggle for the Exodus of USSR believers, led by the Nakhodka church, that put an end to the collapse of the spiritually bankrupt empire of evil — the USSR.
It is precisely today that believers in America, originally from the empire of evil, are holding back the continuation of the genocide of Protestant believers on the territory of the former USSR, advocating for the support of the Lautenberg Amendment by the U.S. Congress.

***

The Valley of Trolls. The Russian internet is gradually turning into it

09.04.2012

Inna GRIGORIEVA, Pavel CHUVILYAEV

We decided to become online trolls. But tourists are not accepted; only on a work visa. There are two vacancies: disrupting order on forums and in social networks, as well as hidden advertising. It turned out to be an interesting and educational excursion, which also brought in a little money.

Anti-sectarian troll Sasha from Zhytomyr, Sinitsky, blasphemes against the backdrop of the shed blood of Jesus Christ

Cruel Jokes

Trolls dwell in the internet. If you exclude malicious buffoonery, the main purpose of a troll’s life is hidden (or not so hidden) economic and political advertising. Most trolls are unorganized and operate on the internet for their own pleasure. Psychologists and psychiatrists have long noticed that the number of people with deviations is far greater than what is detected during medical check-ups. The anonymity of the internet reveals suppressed complexes. This is how “wild” trolls are born, making up about 60% of the population of the Valley in the Valley of Trolls.

Anti-sectarian troll, defiled in “Butyrka” prison as a pederast-nasty piece of work — Sasha “Tarchok-Sivushny” Sinitsky, set himself up as a denouncer of the Protestant church

The Lower Layer.

Trolls are divided into three categories: troll cub, common troll and professional troll (with access to the organized elite).

A troll cub, also known as a beginner troll, also known as a lout-troll, also known as a fat troll, also known as a troll larva — is a person who has not yet grasped the specifics of trolling. The main identifying signs: he gives himself away, not hiding that he is a troll. If indisputable arguments are raised against him, he declares: “I was trolling you, and you, sucker, fell for it.”

This is unacceptable not only for a professional but also for a common troll. Identifying oneself as a troll is disgraceful. An even greater disgrace — only the exposure of one’s real identity. And after identification this is fairly easy to do, especially in social networks, where registration data are in plain sight. The troll’s victim must never know that they have been “played.” But even a troll cub is fairly skilled in the art of insulting, flooding, and going off-topic.

Flooding is the continuous generation of meaningless texts and clogging up useful information with them. The calculation is that a normal user will spend a lot of time reading nonsense. Sometimes flooding is composed of pieces of various texts. There are programs that generate flooding automatically; they cost from 5 thousand to 20 thousand rubles. The difference in price depends on the ability to bypass the protection of forums and networks. The word “offtopit” means “to go off‑topic.” Like an elder bush in the garden and an uncle in Kyiv — totally irrelevant. And it’s not harmless. The goal is to steer the discussion away. As if we, in this article, dropped the trolls and then started discussing cargo aviation problems.

Blasphemer and troll Sinitsky — compelled to incite hatred against the believers of Exodus

Evolutionary Development

In any craft, there are levels of mastery. Gaining experience, a novice troll turns into an ordinary troll, also known as an experienced troll. This kind of online hooligan can pull off a couple of commercially successful operations, carry out a good prank, and even drive someone to hysteria. After that, he gets the mistaken idea that he is a professional. But that’s not the case.

A professional troll, also known as a subtle troll, is capable of devising complex maneuvers and schemes, the result of which is obtaining money from clients or lulz. Lulz — a measure of a troll’s success.

A professional troll does not engage in forum pranks; he trolls on a large scale. He is capable of driving someone to suicide, getting them fired from their job, or at least making people think the way he wants. A good success for a troll can be considered the closure of a store or a company. He is invulnerable to moderators and administrators.

Trolls can be identified. But only ordinary or novice ones. A professional troll can only be recognized by a more experienced troll. However, do not think that every erudite interlocutor who disagrees with your point of view on a forum is a troll. And if you still suspect, never say it directly. If it’s an ordinary person, they might not understand. And a troll will immediately deny it and accuse you of trolling. He might even complain to the site administrator. The only thing you can do is to complain to the moderator about him faster than he does about you.

If novice trolls curse in the Net with obscenities and ruin grammar (“preved, medved”), a professional troll is impeccably polite, and his writing style might be envied by some journalists and writers. An elite troll will never insult or get personal. He camouflages himself. The troll stirs up a quarrel but always remains in the shadows. A professional is cunning. He never gives a clear answer to a question; he must always have room for retreat. He answers a question with a question, and if he is pressed to the wall, he immediately says: “And why does that interest you so much?”

The punishment of a troll is not limited to a ban (prohibition from participating in discussion). According to the law, a troll’s activity falls under two articles of the Criminal Code: Art. 130 — insult and Art. 213 — hooliganism. Under the first, one can get up to two years in prison; under the second, up to seven. The problem is that only a troll cub can be prosecuted under them. Lawsuits for insults on the internet are known, but the result is zero. Not a single troll in Russia has been sentenced to a real prison term. Only fines of up to 10,000 rubles have been awarded.

Troll, SBU agent and provocateur — a scoundrel lowered in “Butyrka” — Sasha “Tarchyok‑Sivushny”

Career of a Manipulator

More and more often on the internet, you can find job postings: people are needed who can sit in the Net all night and covertly advertise some product or another. Reward: from 15 to 35 thousand rubles a month, sometimes as a bonus they promise to bring three cans of beer and several packs of chips each night.

With Aidar, a professional troll originally from Kazan, we met in a Moscow café. He told almost nothing about himself, didn’t even reveal his age (looking 25–28). He didn’t even give his name right away, only his nickname — Euro. About such internet vacancies, he said this: “They are unlikely to find experienced trolls willing to work for money. I, for example, would if they offered personally, but I wouldn’t apply through an ad.”

To the question of whether professional trolling can after all bring benefit to those who hire trolls for work, Euro immediately replied: “Yes, gigantic. A troll can, for example, make a crowd bare their teeth and hate some competitor company. But he will do it so carefully and surgically precisely that later individual patients from the crowd might ask themselves: ‘Why did I come to hate this company/project so much?!’ During elections, trolls are usually involved in politics. Now they’ve ended, and many will have to look for work.”

Wolf in sheep’s clothing Alexander Sinitsky, humiliated in Butyrka, with his brother, [informant of Rostov and the USA Alex Sarkisyan](/en/archives/6397 ““Veteran” of the informant front! Secrets of the archive, from the safe of the Soviet‑American informant and ally of Alex Sinitsky, SBU agent! (4th edition)”) — Sandro Zashchyokin

A professional troll is a PR specialist, advertiser, and brand manager. But with a “minus” sign. He doesn’t promote a project — he destroys the competition. He is broadly educated, must know practically everything he might encounter on the Net. The first thing a commercial troll does is spend a month studying the product being promoted and those of its competitors — searching for the flaws he will troll. Materials are provided, but the mark of qualification is finding them independently. They also study materials on psychology, crowd‑management, and even hypnosis. An exam is set. There are no resits: you’re simply taken on or not.

The job consists of writing short text posts. First, you have to show erudition, so people start listening. Then you gradually move on to trolling. The idea is pushed that the client’s brand is “wow”, while all the rest aren’t fit to lick its boots. Because… and here you hammer away at the competitors’ flaws.

Political trolling is no different. Instead of product features, you study the programmes of parties and rival candidates. As well as their personal shortcomings and compromising material about them. Trolls don’t gather the dirt. Their task is to tell as many people about it as possible — and to make them believe it.

It must be said that political trolling among the troll elite is “meh”. Not a disgrace, but a lowering of standards. When word gets out that a pro has gone into politics, they ask sympathetically, “What, the money’s good or you couldn’t find enough businessmen?” Because in politics, direct “in‑your‑face” attacks and insults are often used — i.e., rookie trolls.

Red‑faced from a man’s touch, the SBU informant and provocateur — a “punked” faggot‑mischief‑maker in Butyrka — Sasha “Tarchek‑Sivushny” Sinitsky, at home on the sofa of another secret operative, “Bishop” Syrkin — a witness to the laundering of money stolen by Sunday Adelaja.

Sinitsky, wronged in Butyrka, in a tracksuit, for 14 years terrorised the streets of Zhytomyr with a hench‑gang of junkies; reddened from a man’s touch at the home of his patron, the divorced “Bishop” Syrkin.

***

Profession: “shitting on forums”

Moscow, September 11, 2009 (Novy Region, Arina Morokova, Vitaly Akimov) – At the start of the noughties, when deputy head of the Kremlin administration Vladislav Surkov declared a general mobilisation to fight “orangism”, the Runet was suddenly flooded with people who furiously “commented” on articles by opposition authors and expressed rapture for the powers‑that‑be.

Owners of popular online diaries and opposition websites that have a “feedback” feature found that after every “critical post” hordes of unknown “bloggers” would descend and “shit in the comments”.

“Russia is rising from its knees! And whoever doesn’t see it is a Pindos, a kakol, or a rodent!” – the most common posting on the forums of RIA “Novy Region”.

“Under Putin the chaos is over, and only enemies of Russia like YOU don’t notice it” – write visitors to “liberal sites”, such as “Radio Svoboda”.

NR correspondents surveyed LiveJournal users and political technologists, and with their help tried to find out: who are these people who chose such a strange occupation – to “shit” on forums and in LJ? Where did they come from in the Runet, where protest, freedom and dissidence have always existed? And how much does this work pay?

Russian political analyst Stanislav Belkovsky: “I DON’T READ THE COMMENTS UNDER MY ARTICLES, SO AS NOT TO ENTER INTO DISCUSSION WITH THE UNWORTHY”

“These are specially trained people whose job is to discredit positions or texts that are inconvenient for the authorities by means of comments in blogs and in forums under articles. It’s a specially trained brigade, it has existed since the start of the decade. It was created as early as 2000‑2001 and is not numerous.

People usually write under different names; one and the same person speaks under dozens of nicknames, repeating one and the same thesis in different words. As a rule, the ‘rebuttals’ are all of a kind: if the author criticises United Russia, the president, the prime minister – he is morally tainted, stupid, inferior.

That’s why I, personally, as an author, never read the comments under my own articles. Because if I start reading, I would in a way be entering into dialogue with these people, and I believe they don’t deserve a dialogue.

The style of these ‘comments’ jars on me, although, of course, it fully matches the style of the Kremlin’s political‑technology machine, Surkov’s style. Read the respectable blogs, the respectable Kremlin experts published in Izvestia. The same rhetoric is there. Oppositionists against the wall, they’re all nonentities and scumbags. I call it Surkov’s style.

Those who ‘shit in the comments’ are on a salary; they spend the whole day on the internet doing total monitoring. Their pay is several thousand dollars; I think, depending on experience, qualifications and past services, it can range from one to five thousand dollars a month.

Nobody ‘shits’ for free – that’s my conviction. A person who has a steady job won’t sit on forums, tracking down various texts and commenting on them. Even if he’s a staunch supporter of Putin. So he’ll praise the prime minister in the kitchen. That’s all. Because ‘crawling’ around forums and writing something also takes time and work.”

Leader of the opposition “Solidarity”, LiveJournal “thousandaire” Ilya Yashin: “I DON’T BAN THOSE WHO ‘SHIT’”

“I didn’t hold a candle, I don’t know if they really work for money, but it gives that impression. Because when an ideologically important post appears, a whole systemic reaction from a number of comrades automatically arises, which makes it possible to conclude that a targeted campaign is underway. It’s a kind of internet war.

As an active blogger, I encounter this quite often. I, by the way, never ‘ban’ these people, for which some criticize me. But I think there’s nothing terrible about it, please, let them write. For me, the principle of free discussion in LiveJournal is much more important. Even if these people are working for money, I see nothing critical in that. It’s better to have heated discussions with an overflow of emotions than to have no discussion at all, as on television, for example. Therefore, I would not exaggerate the threat of this phenomenon.

It’s much worse when such scumbags come offline and start acting up in real life, not in virtual space. That’s not very pleasant. We’ve had to deal with such provocateurs more than once.”

Mikhail Tulsky, President of the “Political Analytics” research center: “MESSING UP LIVEJOURNAL IS THE CHEAPEST METHOD OF FIGHTING THE ‘ORANGE’”

“It all started in 2005, on the wave of the fight against the ‘Orange Revolution.’ Deputy head of the presidential administration Vladislav Surkov then developed a whole plan to counter the ‘color threat.’ Youth movements were created (Nashi, Molodaya Gvardiya, Russia Molodaya, Mestnye, Novye Lyudi, Eurasian Youth Union, and so on), which staged actions ‘in support of Putin.’ Several propaganda websites on the Internet were created or revived — Dni.ru, Polithexogen, a dozen sites of the Krivda.ru holding, and also the relatively decent and solid Vzglyad.ru.

The third stage of ‘prevention’ was the creation of groups of bloggers, each of which was attached to some LiveJournal community or opposition website.

The strategy of the ‘hirelings’’ ‘performances’ didn’t vary much. Some of them, in a supposedly reasonable way, rushed to prove that ‘under Putin there’s more order,’ ‘stability has come’ and ‘universal prosperity,’ ‘Russia has risen from its knees,’ and so on. The second group specialized in ‘ravings,’ pushing any criticism of the authorities to absurdity, declaring: ‘Yes, I agree with you: all Russian people are cattle, and nothing good has ever happened in Russia and never will,’ and also labeling all oppositionists as ‘FSB agents,’ and so on.

In this sense, the example of the site Grani.ru is indicative, which back in 2005 was attacked by ‘hirelings’ with senseless obscene posts, idiotic suggestions, and so on. Now a similar picture can be observed on the site ‘Radio Liberty’ and on all forums of opposition resources.

A distinctive feature of such ‘accusers’ is their monotony. They open several LiveJournals, and sometimes even unthinkingly hang the same photo on all of them. Or they start ‘taking down’ someone under different nicknames, but in an absolutely identical manner. And it becomes clear that it’s not an indignant crowd of voluntary guardians of the regime, but one poorly prepared hireling.”

Mikhail Tulsky reported that, according to his data, this thankless labor of “mucking up other people’s resources and other people’s LiveJournals” is paid on a fee basis. The more you muck up, the more you get. But on the whole, the expert says, the sums involved are extremely small — about a thousand dollars a month. “And after the crisis, probably even less,” Tulsky noted.

When asked where such “bloggers” are recruited, the expert replied that some come into this “business” by chance, through acquaintances with its organizers, and some from Kremlin movements like Nashi, Molodaya Gvardiya, and so on.

Mikhail Tulsky stated that this aspect of the “fight against orangeism” can be considered the lowest-budget one.

“Well, how many of these propagandists are there? No more than a few dozen, each of them has several LiveJournals, some have several dozen, so in total several hundred LiveJournals participate in the paid ‘fight.’ The cost for each LJ propagandist is no more than $1,000 per month, so for all — several tens of thousands of dollars a month and several hundred thousand a year. For comparison, placing a single article about ‘how Russia blossomed under Putin’ in the Western press costs $100,000–300,000, and over a year it amounts to millions or even tens of millions of dollars.”

The political scientist also noted, “for the sake of fairness,” that American special services also indulge in similar methods of propaganda. There, too, hired blogger-agents “brainwash” the public and whitewash the actions of the State Department.

“Only the EU countries do not have this. From which I conclude that these technologies are characteristic of those countries and regimes that cannot create the desired image for themselves through objective media and feel comfortable only surrounded by their own mendacious propaganda. Which need to hire dozens and hundreds of liars to launder their reputation in the world or in their own country,” Tulsky summed up.

Writer, screenwriter, LiveJournal “thousander” Oleg Kozyrev: “THEY IDENTIFY PUTIN WITH THEMSELVES”

“I would divide such commenters into three groups. The first — indeed, bloggers on a salary, i.e., commenters who inhabit forums, monitor them, and get money for ‘bringing the ideologically correct point of view.’

The second — participants in Putin’s system — officials, businessmen feeding at the trough of power, the militia — these people also have the Internet.

The third — sincere fighters who apparently associate Putin’s successes with themselves. Like, if I comment here and curse the liberals, then ‘we together with Putin’ built the third transport ring.

The common, key thing for these people — they are products of Putin’s propaganda. Or in it they found solace for themselves (this applies especially to people of left-wing views and nationalists). In general, through Putin they try to take revenge on the democrats for their temporary victories. Only they don’t notice that in the end they take revenge not on their political opponents, but on their own country.”

General Director of RIA Novy Region Alexander Shchetinin: “WE AFFECTIONATELY CALL THOSE WHO MUCK UP COMMENTS ‘BEAST-LIZARDS’”

The regular visitors to the NR2.RU forum are affectionately known among us as “beast-lizards.” I don’t think many of them work for or draw a salary from the FSB, the SBU, or any other special service; they’re perfectly sincere people, but oh, how many of them would love to be “on the payroll” of “the boys from the agencies” in a fully above‑board way. In both Russia and Ukraine there’s a cult of the special services, and in Russia the cult of the TV set is still in full swing. The “beast-lizards” get the bulk of their information from the telly.

Having gorged on films about “saboteurs” and news items about “enemies of the people,” our “beast-lizards” arrive on the forum and hurl themselves into battle: against “khokhols” (“moskals”), “pindos,” “Banderites,” “commies,” “unfinished Vlasovites,” and so on. They are knights of cloak and dagger, on the front line of the struggle. We know the most rabid ones very well.

And they know us. The forum is a kind of hobby club where everyone has long since grown close-knit. Even the most irreconcilable enemies. They teach us how to work, believing they could do our job better than we do. They reproach us for betrayal, for a lack of taste, they curse us – but they read, read, read… This is our fan club. Like in football. “The editor-in-chief should be sent to the soap factory, and the journalists into the furnace!” – we’re very familiar with that. And we are always glad to have our fans. The only thing we will not allow the “beast-lizards” to do is meddle in the work of “NR.”

The really scary thing is something else. Yesterday a call came from FSB Colonel Mikhail (I’ll leave out his surname) from the “K” directorate in Tyumen. He was inquiring about our forum. They had caught someone who confessed to making a certain post. Only that post does not exist on our site! The moderator deleted it ages ago. For calls to overthrow the existing order by means of an armed uprising they would try to shut us down, first and foremost. We delete such posts. And now the FSB has no evidentiary base! The fellow confessed, but to what?! So they want us to help them put this guy behind bars. And that is going too far.

When the “colonel” on the phone found out that the server hosting the forum is located in Kyiv and is moderated from there, he literally choked: “But how will I be able to interrogate him?!” (the moderator). “If the criminal case has been opened on Russian territory, don’t I have to interrogate him exclusively on Russian territory too?!” That is why fewer and fewer people from Ukraine are coming to Russia. What if they end up being interrogated?

So we ask: where is the platform for discussion? The media, their blogs and forums are the only such places. A friend of mine recently gave a very vivid description of “discussions” in Russia: “It’s like being in prison camp. The big man occasionally invites the politicos over and chews the fat about life, because he’s already fed up with his brainless toadies.” And he added a second thing: “How on earth did they, Vova Putin and Dima Medvedev, manage to arrange things so that the elite they anoint never hears the people itself?”

RIA “Novy Region” will be monitoring how the situation develops on forums and in the blogosphere.

NR2.ru: http://www.nr2.ru/moskow/248827.html

Trolls – the most disgusting spawn of Putin’s Federation

July 29, 2013, 16:45

Yuri Magarshak

Putin’s Federation has invented little that is new. Cynicism? It is thousands of years old. Cheating and theft? They go back to Tsar Gorokh and His Serene Highness Menshikov. Hypocrisy? It didn’t begin with the Bolsheviks or the “vertical-of-power” crowd but centuries and millennia earlier. Inventions in technology? Have mercy: what inventions can there be in a country where the strongmen (as in the fist) rule over those who create (in plain language, the brain)? The only invention of Putin’s Federation that is truly new, and which could spread across all humanity like iPhones or an epidemic, is the invention of trolls. Trolls as a social institution.

Why are trolls an invention? Because before the advent of the internet, individuals who distort discussions by changing faces and nicknames faster than fashion models change outfits on the catwalk simply could not exist. Virtual scoundrels could no more have existed before the creation of virtual realities on Earth than the Universe before the Universe—it’s as plain as day. Virtual scoundrels as a state institution cannot exist in Europe, America, or Australia. Of all the European democratic (or supposedly European and quasi-democratic) states, only in Russia. Because if such a government-subsidized organization were to emerge, those who dreamed it up and lead it would instantly be exposed, sued, and imprisoned.

Why hide it, why dissemble: what has been invented has been invented! Let us give credit to the resourcefulness and inventive talent of the 21st-century RosVlast!! And to those Close to the First Person of the State who thought up trolls, appeared before the Eyes, and were vouchsafed the Highest Nod of Approval (without which this criminal system could simply not exist in any democratic country, where the justice system is neither sovereign nor spine-controlled). Immediately, parliamentary inquiries would follow. The President’s indignation. For the prosecutor’s office and investigators—if these law-enforcement bodies acted not according to orders from above but according to the Law—to identify the trolls would be a matter of one day, and those who direct them—a couple of days. A mask-show in flesh and blood would appear at the addresses of firms and their order-givers, and the shop would be closed down. But since this criminal and hideous operation exists, patronized by none other than the Highest, one can only be proud of it. As well as of the Duma, in which not a single deputy has made a single inquiry about the trolls and their patrons. And of the Power that invents forms of Russian life unprecedented since the monkey climbed down from the tree to turn into people.

How then to fight trolls amid Internet freedom, not only of opinions but also of distorting the people’s opinions? For website managers and computer specialists whose sites are disorganized by trolls, to block the IP address of any computer is a matter of one minute. If trolls were not backed by powerful organizations, that would be the end of the matter. Because the IP (Internet Protocol) addresses of computers whose work is provided via the Internet are changed by providers not more than once a month, at the very most (very rarely) once every few days. However, trolls are not like ordinary users. They (according to reports from Russian website owners) are able to change their IP as many times as they like, as often as they like. Which would be absolutely impossible if trolls worked not as an organization, but as individuals.

Changing an IP address immediately after it is blocked is possible only in three cases:

trolls work in league with top-class hackers who have penetrated the software of the provider company, i.e., together with the trolls they form a criminal gang
trolls are provided with a very large number of computers to cover their tracks. Considering that from these computers criminal actions are committed to deform discussions and distort the people’s opinions, also criminal actions committed in conspiracy.
trolls are part of a special network of Internet providers created specifically for this purpose, and also to enable other actions prohibited by the Constitution. Which in a Rule-of-Law State is also criminally punishable.

So how should trolls be dealt with? Can the fight against a troll-den be effective, or, being supported by the authorities, are they invincible-inextinguishable in one particular (strangled) country – try to guess with four guesses which one? Undoubtedly both conquerable and extinguishable! On many Russian websites, including Echo of Moscow, after repeated hooligan, racist and/or fascist remarks by the same “person,” all his trollings for all time are blocked with one command. That is, all the work for which the troll is paid instantly goes to waste. The same thing repeats after the troll, in order to be made elusive-inextinguishable, is given a new IP address. The blocking program is not complicated, which, by the way, makes sense to put up on the Internet for free so that every site creator, even a small one, could use it. Yes, a troll can have as many lives as demons in computer games. But all his criminal and anti-human activity under each IP address for all time is destroyed by one press of the finger of a moderator or the site’s computer specialist who terrorizes the troll. Which makes the work of trolls who pretend to be scoundrels, Nazis, boors and/or louts ineffective. What is the point of paying for the troll’s “work”, the results of which over a long period are destroyed by one press of a finger! As a result, the trolls’ masters will be forced to evolve, hiring more educated trolls. And also giving orders to work under the guise of normal people. As thoughtful, honestly thinking people. Bringing in support of the Power that hired them, not mockery and hysterics, but arguments. But that would be the beginning of evolution in the right direction! Because if mercenaries hired by the state bring arguments instead of mockery and insults, it will resemble a normal process of discussion. And, by the way, will heal the state. And the power.

Therefore, blocking the IP addresses of those who act the fool on the Internet is by no means a useless or hopeless process, as it sometimes seems. And in addition to blocking: trolls play on the fact that, it seems, you cannot identify with certainty who is a troll and who is not. But you can! If someone whom moderators block several times – and he resurrects, say, more than three times a week – a mark should be placed next to his avatar, such as a flea with a red exclamation mark or similar. Which would mean: “caution, people” This pseudonym is able to change its IP, jumping from soul to soul, body to body, and from address to address. And that means not a human!”

“I gave birth to you, I will kill you” said Gogol about a traitor to the Motherland through the lips of his father. Just as – were the great writer alive today – he could have said about trolls through the lips of the Head of State. Because if anyone is the most criminal traitor to the Motherland in the Putin federation (not just a criminal who deserves a prison term, but a traitor to the Motherland in the most literal sense of the term) – it is not thieves and swindlers. But the trolls. As well as those who stand behind their virtual backs in flesh and blood. Instructing, spawning, and multiplying.

Ridding oneself of trolls as an organization supported by someone in the government and/or at the Lubyanka is as simple as can be. For this, a single trial broadcast nationwide on Channel One against the trolls, their organizers, sponsors, and those providing them with protection would suffice. With all of them receiving real deserved prison terms by court order. With fiery tribune Zhirinovsky’s speech in the Duma in support of the trial of the whole gang — and Putin expressing approval of the actions of the law enforcement agencies. And the entire troll farm will instantly vanish. As if it never existed.

Trolls are the most vile and disgusting spawn of Putin’s Federation. However, sooner or later this criminal system will be brought to an end. Not only by the government (which – hopefully – will begin not to support and instruct its spawn, but to fight them). But also by everyone for whom truth is dearer than its distortion.

Opinion of Plotal from Ashdod: the polluting of RuNet with useless and distorted information has led to a decline in its informativeness, and consequently, its usefulness. It’s no wonder that those virtual pens from which jingoistic patriots come here are called BYDLONET, and its trolls, paid-for cretins and scoundrels of the Kremlin junta, are called bydlonetchiks.

***

Original article http://www.nr2.ru/technology/319222.html

04.02.11

‘Trolls on Salary’ Will Become Official Cyber Vigilantes

Russia Is Creating an Internet Monitoring Service for ‘Extremism’

04.02.11 18:14

Moscow, February 4 (Novy Region, Alexey Usov) – This month, official ‘vigilantes’ will appear in RuNet, tracking all types of publications and reporting ‘extremist’ and pornographic content to law enforcement agencies. The board of the ‘Safe Internet League’ will include the CEO of Rostelecom, Alexander Provotorov. The creators wish to spend ‘millions of dollars’ on the activities of the cyber vigilantes. The money will be spent on creating ‘cyber vigilantes,’ promoting self-censorship, and lobbying. Note that there will be no need to search for cyber vigilantes for long – state funding will be enough to pay for the existing army of ‘trolls’ from pro-Kremlin organizations, which has been actively shaping the face of RuNet since the early 2000s.

A partnership to control content on the Web is being created by internet providers and the Marshall Capital fund. The ‘Safe Internet League’ will coordinate the work of existing organizations that declare their goal to combat illegal content: ROCIT, ‘Friendly Internet,’ and the Center for Safe Internet. The board of the league will include Rostelecom CEO Alexander Provotorov, the supervisory board will be headed by former Deputy Minister of Communications Alexey Soldatov. The board of trustees will be headed by Minister of Communications and Mass Media Igor Shchegolev. The official launch of the project is scheduled for next week, reports Gazeta.Ru.

According to the chairman of the League’s board, managing partner of the Marshall Capital Partners investment fund Konstantin Malofeev, the partnership is being created to ‘consolidate the efforts of market participants in eradicating dangerous content: child pornography, propaganda of drug addiction, violence, fascism, and extremism.’ The head of the cyber vigilantes is counting on show trials of ‘cybercriminals.’ Malofeev admitted that he has already held negotiations with shareholders of Odnoklassniki and Vkontakte from Mail.Ru Group on increasing the number of censors and on their independently informing the Ministry of Internal Affairs about ‘dangerous content.’

‘We see an exacerbation of the “national question” in society, as seen on Manezhnaya Square, and issues of public safety are also arising after the terrorist attack at Domodedovo. The country’s top leadership has designated security as a political trend,’ the publication quotes the opinion of Astamur Tadeev, an expert of United Russia’s working group on improving media legislation.

The creators of the cyber vigilantes are counting on broad financing of ‘tens of millions of dollars.’ They cite the example of the United States, which allocates up to $70 million annually for monitoring internet content. Perhaps the League’s creators are counting on participation in the presidential project to create a national search engine, estimated at $300 million.

Similar cyber vigilantes operate in China, reporting to the ‘authorities’ about excessive internet user activity. As a result, the PRC has firmly held first place in the world in the number of political prisoner bloggers for several years.

Note that the information about the formation of internet vigilantes coincided with the news about the plans of Rosfinmonitoring to introduce total control over all electronic financial activity of citizens. The plans of the financial intelligence, the Ministry of Finance, and the Central Bank to create a national payment system are to link all payments by Russian residents to their passport data. In particular, electronic money flows will be tracked at all stages. Citizens will be able to carry out cashless activity either through bank cards or through personal electronic keys that record purchases in online stores, as well as payment of utility bills, taxes, fines, internet provider services, and purchase of electronic media content. A similar control system, but with even stricter rules, has been in effect in China since 2007, where since 2007 the use of virtual money to purchase physical goods has been prohibited.

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