8List.ph
  • News
    • Showbiz
    • Opinion
    • Sports
    • Profiles
    • Weird
  • Adulting
    • Career
    • Money
    • Health
    • School & Learning
    • Relationships
  • Pop
    • Movies & TV
    • Music
    • Books
    • Games
    • Theater
    • Retro
    • K-World
  • Lifestyle
    • Style
    • Beauty
    • Food & Drink
    • Nest
    • Tech
    • Travel
    • Pinoy
  • Videos
    • Slam8ook
    • Isabuhay Ang Panata
    • 8list Plays
    • Archives
      • 8List Asks
      • 8List Explores
      • 8List Presents
      • 88 Seconds
      • 8secs
      • Filgood
      • Kaya Today!
      • Pagsubeks
      • #8MinutesWith
      • YOUth DECIDE
      • Str8 Up with Delamar
      • Toughest Job 2016
  • Breathe
  • About
  • Sitemap
  • Advertise
  • Privacy
  • Archive
  • Bitesized.ph
  • Windowseat.ph

 

 

 

8List.ph is published by ID8, Inc.

Subscribe
8List.ph
8List.ph
  • News
    • Showbiz
    • Opinion
    • Sports
    • Profiles
    • Weird
  • Adulting
    • Career
    • Money
    • Health
    • School & Learning
    • Relationships
  • Pop
    • Movies & TV
    • Music
    • Books
    • Games
    • Theater
    • Retro
    • K-World
  • Lifestyle
    • Style
    • Beauty
    • Food & Drink
    • Nest
    • Tech
    • Travel
    • Pinoy
  • Videos
    • Slam8ook
    • Isabuhay Ang Panata
    • 8list Plays
    • Archives
      • 8List Asks
      • 8List Explores
      • 8List Presents
      • 88 Seconds
      • 8secs
      • Filgood
      • Kaya Today!
      • Pagsubeks
      • #8MinutesWith
      • YOUth DECIDE
      • Str8 Up with Delamar
      • Toughest Job 2016
  • Breathe
internet trolls
  • Adulting

How Paid Internet Trolls Work and Why You Should Ignore Them

  • Posted on Apr 6, 2020Apr 6, 2020
  • 6 minute read
  • Kyzia Maramara
Total
1
Shares
0
0
1

How Paid Internet Trolls Work and Why You Should Ignore Them

Apr 6, 2020   •   Kyzia Maramara

Technology is both a gift and a curse. On one hand, it’s a crucial tool to spread awareness but on the other hand, it’s also a hotbed of fake news and a dueling ground for debates that go absolutely nowhere. Try scrolling through your social media right now, and you probably won’t even get past 3 posts without encountering a heated political discussion involving opposing sides. Many of these are instigated by a paid troll. This is the magic of an internet troll — sowing discord.

Because social media has become an integral part of our lives, it’s imperative we get educated to protect ourselves from its dangers.

 

What are online trolls?


via GIPHY
An internet troll is a person who starts an online argument through controversial statements to upset other people and just generally wreaking havoc. Their statements are sometimes so effective that you can’t help but get riled up and retaliate with a comment of your own. But don’t waste your energy typing paragraphs, there’s no one behind that account you just replied to. That is, they’re too busy manning other profiles to internalize your valid points.

Of course, not all trolls can be found in political discussions. These groups of people are hired to make anything trend and to attack anyone – celebrities, politicians, groups.

 

How to spot a troll

Their profiles are generic. On Facebook, an internet troll’s profile wall is filled with political and religious posts. They’re built to look like the profile of a regular person but a little digging will reveal few, if any, personal photos. On other social media platforms, you can check the dates of when their profiles were made. If it’s recent, if they have few followers, or if they have a string of numbers at the end of their username, maybe it’s safe to assume that they’re trolls.

Internet trolls proliferate in comment sections. According to a study conducted by researchers from Cornell and Stanford University in the USA, you can almost always identify a troll if they (1) post a copy-paste message that is clearly online propaganda, (2) they have bad grammar, spelling, and punctuation, or (3) when you engage with them, they keep circling back to one topic.

 

Their role in online propaganda

Evil surely knows how to keep up with the times and in recent years, it has learned to use the internet to its advantage. Online propaganda, in simple terms, is the method of swaying online opinion using social media advertisements and posts. It’s something that has been heavily used in politics worldwide.

This article published in The Atlantic details how online propaganda successfully crept into American social media at the height of the 2016 election campaign. It also goes into how politicians are harnessing its power even more for the country’s upcoming November 2020 presidential election.

In the Philippines, the use of fake accounts for political operations is widespread. J.C. Ong and J.V. A. Cabañes’ academic paper “Architects of Networked Disinformation” provides a short but extremely relevant discussion on what goes on behind the country’s internet trolls and fake accounts.

Time for Yourself: How to Self-Care While on Quarantine
Time for Yourself: How to Self-Care While on Quarantine
Ina Louise Manto | Mar 31, 2020

 

They are managed by “disinformation architects”

Paying a hefty sum for troll armies to support a particular politician and tarnish the name of the opposing party is an “open secret” tactic. Even the Los Angeles Times has reported of Manila having hundreds of troll farm dens and how “it’s very normalized in the Philippines.”

The people managing these trolls and hundreds of their accounts are not messing around. They know how to use advertising and PR strategies and how to craft messages that will make you think.

Here’s a tweet that conveniently summarizes the 4 types of misinformation from the “Architects of Networked Disinformation” study:

Four types of misinformation here:
1. In-house Staff (fake account operations)
2. Ads and PR (In short, pabango)
3. Click bait (simple enough to understand)
4. State-sponsored (inciting support for admin policy)
> Details for each, see thread below. https://t.co/85sBKbi6t1

— Jenken Jayveen (@JnknJyvn) April 2, 2020

 

Professional trolls get paid per response — starve them

There’s a viral Twitter thread that exposed how trolls in the Philippines operate. It claims they are paid per response and that they have a quota to reach. Some of their tasks include getting a hashtag to trend and creating pro-government scripts that they are instructed to post everywhere. Seriously. Remember the iconic post that started with this line: “I’m sad. We have Chinese neighbors sa condo…”? TROLL.

Thanks, @robcham. Starve a Troll Today. #OUSTDUTERTENOW pic.twitter.com/xIs7b2ubEY

— TINO (@yourcupoftino) April 2, 2020

We’re aware that working as a troll isn’t always about one’s political stance. It’s mostly about the money because if we’re being honest, the job pays well. Sure, jobs are difficult to come by, but working as a paid troll for politics pretty much directly equates to betraying your motherland. There are thousands of better jobs out there — spare your conscience.

 

Block and report when you encounter one

If each one of us refused to engage with an online troll, social media would be a better place. These accounts exist to create virtual disputes, but it takes two to tango. If you don’t respond, they don’t have anyone to fight with. Blocking and reporting can also provide you with that peace of mind.

 

Go back to being cautious about everything you see on the internet

Why exactly does online propaganda work even though there seems to be a lot of “woke” individuals on social media? Well, not everyone on social media knows what’s right from wrong or has even remotely formed their own opinion on certain topics without some sort of external influence.


via GIPHY
From a country that ranked lowest in reading comprehension out of 79 other participating countries, we have to accept the fact that many of us still need to learn. Online propaganda works because many of us are still attracted to the flashy looks, the viral dance moves, and the empty promises in pretty layouts.

Before you share a post or an article, how hard is it to make sure you’ve read through and understood it? Don’t add to the online noise. Follow reliable news outlets and personalities and warn others when their posts seem misinformed.

 

Keep your eyes peeled and fight smart.

quick note also that this is an entire disinformation system at work (not just a bunch of ppl online), so if you’re feeling frustrated and powerless, then know that that is their goal. take a step back from the screen if you need to, but let’s fight smart and fight the system! https://t.co/P23vJq6Y5l

— rai m (@rai0t) April 2, 2020

In late 2019, Netflix released an excellent documentary on online privacy — The Great Hack. It chronicled how disinformation campaigns are executed and how social media is the biggest tool for its success. There are risks to enjoying the benefits of social media and we have no choice but to scroll past these risks every single day. The best way to keep our morals and our sanity intact is to arm ourselves with education.

Maybe we can’t block and report every single troll out there, but we can all agree to help each other wade through their murky waters of propaganda and fake news.

Fighting back could be done in many forms and it isn’t only found in the streets. It has evolved. If people can come together to mass report a certain government official’s blog (it was a success, BTW), coming together to defeat online trolls is not too far-fetched.

 

What do you think of these troll armies?


Total
1
Shares
0
0
1
Related Topics
  • politics
  • propaganda
  • social media
  • trolls
Avatar photo
Kyzia Maramara

Kyzia spends most of her time capturing the world around her through photos, paragraphs, and playlists. She is constantly on the hunt for the perfect chocolate chip cookie, and a great paperback thriller to pair with it.

Previous Article
  • Movies & TV

The Medical K-Dramas You Should Binge Now, Plus the (Fictional) Doctors You’ll Crush On Next

  • Posted on Apr 6, 2020Sep 12, 2022
  • Meryl Medel
View Post
Next Article
  • Lockdown Diaries
  • Travel

It’s Holy Week; Did You Know You Can Go on a Virtual Visita Iglesia?

  • Posted on Apr 6, 2020Apr 6, 2020
  • Kaira Guererro
View Post
You May Also Like
View Post
  • Adulting

8 Things I Learned From Attending My High School Batch Homecoming (Despite All The Leftover Trauma)

  • Posted on Mar 3, 2025
  • Kel Fabie
View Post
  • Adulting
  • Opinion

8 Reasons Why Pinoy Doctors (Usually) Show Up Late At Their Clinics

  • Posted on Jan 24, 2025Jan 24, 2025
  • Tim Henares
View Post
  • Adulting

These Are the Only Five Hobbies You’ll Need for a Transformative 2025

  • Posted on Jan 1, 2025Dec 20, 2024
  • Kyzia Maramara
View Post
  • Adulting

Your 2025 Reset Guide: 8 Steps to Setting Yourself Up for a Fresh Start in the New Year

  • Posted on Dec 31, 2024Dec 20, 2024
  • Cristina Morales
View Post
  • Adulting

Here’s How This Healthcare Worker Invested in His Future and Attended His First Concert Ever for FREE

  • Posted on Nov 28, 2024Nov 28, 2024
  • Meryl Medel
View Post
  • Adulting

The Art of Detachment: The Internet’s New Self-Care Trend You Need to Know About

  • Posted on Nov 15, 2024
  • Kyzia Maramara
View Post
  • Adulting

Here Are Some Creative Low-Budget Ways Pinoys Can Heal Their Inner Child

  • Posted on Nov 5, 2024Nov 5, 2024
  • Kyzia Maramara
View Post
  • Adulting

8 Parking Etiquette Rules Every Filipino Should Know

  • Posted on Nov 5, 2024
  • Cristina Morales
2 comments
  1. Pingback: 100 Days of Quarantine: Our Gr8est and H8est Moments from the Lockdown Diaries | 8List.ph
  2. Pingback: ABS-CBN Shutdown: Is This an Attempt to Silence the Press? - 8List.ph

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Get the l8est delivered right to your inbox.

8List.ph
  • About
  • Sitemap
  • Advertise
  • Privacy
  • Archive
  • Bitesized.ph
  • Windowseat.ph
Your daily dose of entertaining, useful and informative lists.

Input your search keywords and press Enter.